streetball the and1 mixtape tour characters

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The And1 mixtape tour brought streetball experience to the masses

• Author: Andy Erk

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When And1 first came onto the scene, it provided a life-changing opportunity for some of New York City’s greatest streetballers. Local legends Shane “Dribbling Machine” Woney, Wailyy “Main Event” Dixon, Anthony “Half Man, Half Amazing” Heyward, Dennis “Spyda” Chism and Robert “50” Martin would become known as the original six, players who shaped what streetball looked like for a mainstream audience and pushed And1 to the top.

And1 basketball has its roots laced tight on hundreds of outdoor battlegrounds, where the best come to prove themselves—Rucker Park, Dyckman, West 4th, Kingdom. New York City is the mecca of streetball and home to six basketball players who just wanted a shot. A shot at greatness, a shot at fame, better, a shot at being immortalized and proving they were more than what people thought, that they were the best non-NBA basketball players the world has ever known.

And1 streetball was intended to be as authentic as possible. At the same time, entertainment was entrenched deep into the streetball identity. The original six were out to take that identity to the masses and gain a chance for the next wave of streetball greats to play college, international, or even NBA basketball.

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Steve Grayson/Getty Images

“We didn't care about popularity, or TV, or money,” says The Dribbling Machine. “We just wanted to prove that New York City had some of the best talent not in the NBA. The goal was to open up door for guys to make it to the NBA, or make it overseas.”

But the And1 squad was not naive enough to believe that they didn’t have to put on a show to keep fans coming back. They realized their time in the spotlight was largely built upon entertainment value. For the original six, importance was placed on ensuring flash while keeping some form of traditional basketball alive.

“Entertainment basketball was just a facet of what we were bringing to the table,” says Half Amazing. “We were also real ball players. It wasn't just an entertaining thing from my perspective. I was out to show these cats that you could also be entertaining playing authentic basketball.”

Two major additions changed the game: Grayson “The Professor” Boucher and Phillip “Hot Sauce” Champion. Neither had the same basketball experience as the original six who built their fame by beating the best of the best in college, Europe, or the famed outdoor courts. For The Professor, making the And1 team was totally by chance.

“I only made my junior college team because my dad sold my coach his wedding ring,” says The Professor. “A bunch of guys got hurt, so it ended up I played that year, but it was only five minutes a game. If the game was close, I wouldn't even get in. That was the extent of my basketball career, pre-And1. 

“[I] actually went there just to watch the game because I was such a fan,” The Professor said. “I went in there and tried out and got the crowd excited with a few moves and they asked me to come inside and play against the And1 team. It just so happened that at that time they were having a nationwide contest looking for someone for the And1 team. I went through the process of elimination the whole summer. It was sort of a survivor-themed contest on ESPN and I ended up winning the contract in August of 2003.”

The addition of The Professor was more than just another roster move. It was a shift in the team’s culture. The And1 brand would never be the same again. The concern was no longer on keeping on-court credibility, or having the most talented players. And1 became about high-level sponsors and putting on the best show the world has seen. And what a show they would put on.

And1 gained popularity as players made entertainment a bigger part of the basketball equation. The ankle-breaking crossovers and jaw-dropping dunks became the magnet that drew a chorus of thousands of oohs and aahs that drowned out stadiums. The Professor became the king of the And1 circuit, the player crowds would beg to see. The stakes were raised even higher by crazy dunks such as Mr. 720’s literal 720 throwdown. His dunks felt fabricated, even for those playing with him.

“It was a delayed reaction, wow that was crazy,” Half Man, Half Amazing said. “Maybe 3-5 seconds later, I was like, 'did he just spin around twice?' Three seconds after I said it, the crowd reacted the same way. After that I just lost it. I lost it after that. To this day, until somebody can top that dunk, he is the greatest dunker on the planet. Everybody has dunked from the foul line in different forms or fashion. Nobody has ever done a 720, except Mr. 720.”

As And1 continued to impress on the court, off-the-court sponsors came running to get involved with the new global sensation. ESPN and Mountain Dew became involved with the And1 tour. ESPN would send And1 to every corner of the globe, from the U.S. to Asia. “We were rock stars,”  Dribbling Machine​ said. “​If you weren't an All-Star in the NBA, we were more popular than you.”  

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While And1 ascended to unimagined heights in public, behind closed doors, things started to go into disarray. The original six saw the beginning of the end.

And1 was always supposed to hold onto the gritty, Saturday afternoon basketball games that focused on winning, not flash. The crossovers didn’t matter. Only the score mattered. Basketball was valued.

“All we wanted to do was be heard, we could've taken what they had, taken a little piece of what we had and just put it together,” Half Man, Half Amazing said. “That is all we were every trying to do, was mix the two. Entertainment basketball and authentic basketball put together and you have that perfect storm. There is nothing like it.”

Player opinion was gone, traditional basketball was gone and big-money sponsors became more heavily involved in the selection of players, direction of the brand and the inner workings of And1. With heavy outside influence, it became easy for players to feel taken advantage of by those trying to make a quick buck.

“The original owners [took advantage of us], it was 100% they took advantage of the game,” Dribble Machine said, “the ideas we have, the knowledge, a lot of the stuff that you see like the hashtags and a lot of stuff like that.

“The first time I realized it, one night I came home, I used to like watching poker. I saw one of the old owners playing poker and he lost, I think, $400,000 or $700,000 on a pair of 7's. All I could do is laugh to myself and say, there goes our money.”

The original six had reached their breaking point. They decided to step away from the brand they had worked so hard to help build after experiencing the highs, lows and ultimate let down. It was time for a change.

After struggling with And1 for too long, Half Man, Half Amazing took to being an extra in movies. Movies offered an escape from basketball, but kept Half Man, Half Amazing in the spotlight. ​

​​Random people step up to take Spiderman one-on-one at the courts. The people are clueless, believing the one behind the mask is a joke of a basketball player. Two minutes later they find themselves lost as Spiderman puts together a mix of dribbling moves that leave them on the floor. The Professor had found his niche as a YouTube content creator through a variety of spoofs on basketball courts across the country.

“In 2013 a friend of mine came up with the Spiderman basketball idea, the guy [who came up with it] Set Free co-produces with me, it was for a prank,” The Professor said. “We did it as a prank and then next you thing you know it was 20 million views in a week. We thought it would be innovative and now it has lasted for more than three years.”

Three years later and The Professor still finds himself creating YouTube videos. His videos have stretched from Spiderman to Star Wars. The Professor finds himself in an odd space as part basketball player, part YouTube celebrity. 

After struggling with And1, The Dribbling Machine and Spyda are trying to find a way to make a lasting impact back on the streetball scene. As they say, the intent is to reinvent the wheel.

“And1 really needs to be back out there because it changed lives,” The Dribbling Machine said. “It was bigger than basketball. I still hear it today, people telling me, man, 'If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have went to college. If it wasn't for you guys, I wouldn't have got out of that gang. If it wasn't for you guys, I wouldn't have worked hard to take care of my family.'”

The impact of And1 and streetball has been so far reaching that Spyda is attempting to bring the original six back together for a reunion. 

“I’m doing transitional housing and I’m working a project right now to bring back streetball,” Spyda said. “I’m open to working with any brand, even And1, Nike, Reebok to bring back the streetball, to help out the community. If you go and do your numbers, when we were touring and playing, there was not a lot of dropout in schools. Guys were more active, women were more active, people were more active in getting in the gym and playing ball. Even if it was just getting in there dribilling and working on moves, it kept people off the streets. It was definitely an educational movement for the community, to keep people from getting in so much trouble.”

Here are the biggest off-season moves in NBA history

Biggest off-season moves in NBA history

Wilt chamberlain, 1968.

George Long

Wilt Chamberlain was traded to the Lakers only one year after winning the Finals with the Warriors. At times, Wilt struggled to fit in with Los Angeles. But in 1972, Chamberlain relinquished some of his offensive game to focus more on defense and rebounding, helping lead the Lakers to a championship—and his only Finals MVP award—in the process.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 1975

John G. Zimmerman

The Lakers acquired Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and his skyhook from Milwaukee in 1975, and he dominated the league while in Hollywood. Kareem won five titles with the Lakers, including a Finals MVP win in 1985, 14 years after his first Finals MVP with the Bucks. Kareem also won three regular season MVPs with the Lakers, and later coached for the franchise as well.

Moses Malone, 1982

Manny Millan

The Houston Rackets traded Moses Malone, who was coming off an MVP season, to the 76ers. Malone quickly formed an unstoppable duo with Julius Erving, and the two led Philly to an NBA Finals in in 1983. Malone won MVP during the regular season, making him the only player to win the award two straight years with different teams.

Shaquille O’Neal, 1996

Peter Read Miller; John W. McDonough

Shaquille O’Neal left the team that drafted him, the Orlando Magic , for the Lakers in the summer of 1996, signing a seven-year, $120 million deal with Los Angeles. Shaq would win three championships with L.A., forming an a legendary—but combustible—combination with Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant.

Tracy McGrady, 2000

Tracy McGrady joined the Magic to play with Grant Hill, but was thrust into a larger role as Hill dealt with numerous injuries. McGrady responded by becoming one of the best scorers in the league, leading the NBA in points per game twice while in Orlando. McGrady’s run was short lived, however, as he was traded to Houston in 2004.

Steve Nash, 2004

John W. McDonough

The Suns signed Steve Nash to a six-year, $63 million deal in 2004. Nash was 30 at the time, but took his game to another level in Phoenix. The point guard won MVP in his first two years in the desert, but despite his individual success, Nash could never lift the team past the conference finals.

Kevin Garnett, 2007

After years of falling short with the Timberwolves, Kevin Garnett was traded to the Celtics in July 2007. Garnett, along with Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, immediately turned the Celtics back into one of the NBA’s premier franchises. Boston won the Finals in KG’s first season, and almost won a couple more if not for ill-timed injuries.

Chris Bosh, 2010

Greg Nelson

Chris Bosh joined the Heat along with LeBron James, and quickly became an integral part of Miami’s success. Bosh played a key role in the Heat’s run to four straight NBA Finals—most notably picking up an offensive rebound and assist before the Ray Allen’s three in Game 6 of the 2013 Finals.

LeBron James, 2010

Walter Iooss Jr.; Jeffery A. Salter

LeBron James, angering many with a TV special to announce his decision, chose to leave Cleveland for Miami in July 2010. LeBron made the Finals in all four of his seasons with the Heat, capturing two championships and two Finals MVPs in the process. James reached new levels of efficiency in Miami, cementing his legacy as one of the game’s greatest players.

Chris Paul, 2011

Chris Paul joined the Clippers in 2011 to form a Lob City-connection with Blake Griffin and lift the Clippers back to relevancy. Los Angeles became one of the top teams year-in and year-out with Paul at the helm, but has struggled in the playoffs against West rivals. As of 2016, Paul has yet to play in a conference finals.

Dwight Howard, 2012

Peter Read Miller

Dwight Howard, like Shaquille O'Neal 16 years before him, left the Magic for the Lakers by forcing a trade out of Orlando. Unlike Shaq, Howard flamed out with the Lakers. Also joined by Steve Nash, the Lakers never gelled on or off the court, and Howard lasted only one season in Los Angeles before joining the Houston Rockets .

LeBron James, 2014

Todd Rosenberg; Greg Nelson

LeBron James returned to Cleveland in 2014, announcing his decision via a letter in Sports Illustrated. LeBron immediately launched the Cavaliers into the NBA’s top tier, bringing the team to the Finals in his first season back. In 2016, the James-led Cavaliers—after going down 3–1—upset the 73-win Warriors in the Finals, a shocking upset led by one of the best individual performances in Finals history.

Kevin Durant, 2016

Kevin Durant , a four-time scoring champion and former MVP, joined the Warriors in July 2016. Golden State not only won 73 games the season before, but knocked Durant’s Thunder team out of the playoffs only weeks before the signing. The Warriors’ addition of Durant immediately made them the overwhelming favorite to win the Finals in 2017.

Dwyane Wade, 2016

Issac Baldizon/NBAE via Getty Images

The Chicago Bulls agreed to sign Dwyane Wade, a 12-time All-Star who won three titles during his 13-year tenure in Miami, to a two-year contract worth $47.5 million with a player option on the second season. Wade won NBA titles with the Heat in 2006, 2012 and 2013 and had spent his entire career with the team after being drafted No. 5 overall in 2003.

This reunion is more than something that Spyda is talking about, it is a movement he is actively prepping. Spyda, who has had several knee surgeries, continued working out and founded a company that will figure out how outsiders and the rest of the original six feel about a possible reunion.

“My thing is, get these guys at a round table, let's talk about it, let's set some goals and try and bring this thing back,” Spyda said. “I don’t want to use the word try, let’s do it. The community needs it right now. I think everybody wants to see us come back and do a reunion. I’m preparing my body and my mind like I have been doing the last five years. Even going through both my repairings on my knees to get me back to who I am, do what Spyda does, what Spyda do.

“I plan on getting the guys back together to come up with a strategic plan. Should we go on the apparel route, or should we just go and just do us and bring the tour back. Even if we have to start one event at a time, just to get a buzz and get back out there. I created a company, I don’t want to say the name right now, but I created a company and just am seeing if guys are down for the movement to get back in the community. I want to get back to donating to the community.”

And1 has always been special. It created that barbeque atmosphere and gave players a chance at changing lives, and it was something that might only happen once in a lifetime, Half Man, Half Amazing says.

“And1 was lightening in a bottle,” Half Man, Half Amazing said. “Nobody saw it coming and I will always, always cherish the memories I have with And1 playing with my guys. To everybody out there who ever had a doubt that And1 was fake, this coming from the o.g. Half Man, Half Amazing, we were the truest ball players out there. You will never be able to put a team together like that ever again. Period. Things like that only come around once.”

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The Oral History of the AND1 Mixtape Tour

For a brief moment in time, the AND1 Tournament was the top of the basketball world, with names like Skip 2 My Lou becoming synonymous with its brand.

Image via Complex Original

The story of the AND1 Mixtape Tour, as told by the streetball players who lived it.

As told to Ralph Warner (@ SoloWarnerBro ), Angel Diaz (@ ADiaz456 ) and Jose Martinez (@ ZayMarty )

The year was 1998. Michael Jordan had just solidified his legacy as the GOAT with “The Final” Shot against the Utah Jazz in the highest-rated Finals series in NBA history. NBA popularity was at an all-time high but the game was about to change. That same year, a grainy video of Rafer “Skip 2 My Lou” Alston was making rounds. Put together by DJ Set Free , the footage showed Alston doing work in the streetball Mecca known as Rucker Park . The fusion of tracks by Rawkus artists including a new rapper by the name of Mos Def with Skip 2 My Lou’s slick moves united two worlds that had been synonymous since the ‘80s: Streetball and hip-hop.

While the multi-millionaires in the league ruled the basketball universe from fall through the spring, summer has always belonged to the streetballers. Starting 15 years ago in 1998, and lasting throughout the mid-2000s, the summers would belong to the AND1 streetballers. Jordan’s retirement and the league’s lockout a few months later would send the NBA into a decline in popularity from 1999 throughout the early aughts. Meanwhile, by the end of 1999 over 100,000 copies of the "The Skip Tape" a.k.a. AND1 Mixtape Vo1. 1 , had been sold.

From that point through the mid 2000s, names like Shane “The Dribbling Machine” Woney , Anthony “Half Man, Half Amazing” Heyward , Waliyy “Main Event” Dixon , Grayson “The Professor” Boucher , and Philip “Hot Sauce” Champion became household names. Rather than rattling off the stats their favorite players were putting up on the hardwood, kids were talking about the wizardry going down on the blacktop. Let's just come out and say it: from the late ‘90s through the mid 2000s AND1 was bigger than the NBA.

The Nike “Freestyle” commercial that dropped in 2001? Heavily influenced by AND1. Tracy McGrady going off the backboard during the 2002 All-Star Game ? Seen countless times on AND1 mixtapes before it was witnessed by 20,000 at First Union Center in Philadelphia. NBA Street and NBA Street Vol. 2 selling over three million copies combined? Without a doubt boosted by the popularity the basketball brand founded in Paoli, Penn. back in 1993.

Though relatively short-lived, for a brief moment in time, the AND1 Tournament was the top of the basketball world. From the days when legends were breaking ankles at The Rucker and Barry Farms in Washington D.C. to the days where suburban kids were practicing those same moves on Huffy hoops in their backyard, here’s the oral history of how streetball became mainstream.

THE PLAYERS

DJ Set Free - Born in NYC and raised in Philadelphia, Set Free is responsible fusing together hip-hop and streetball in the AND1 Mixtape series.

The Dribbling Machine - Shane Woney is a Bronx native who built his streetball reputation at Rucker Park before joining AND1 for the first year of the tour.

Half Man, Half Amazing - Anthony Heyward is from Brooklyn and gained his moniker after Rucker MC Duke Tango witnessed him elevate and dunk over a much larger player.

Headache -  Tim Gittens was one of the first streetballers to sign with AND1. His name rings bells on every NYC court.

Main Event : The Linden, N.J. streetball legend worked with AND1 representatives to develop the idea of having the original AND1 Mixtape game and tour. Dixon played on the tour from 2001 through 2006.

AO -  Straight out of Philly, Aaron Owens has filthy ballhandling skills and dishes some of the best alley-oops in the game.

Helicopter - At a young age, sixth grade to be exact, John Humphrey threw down his first dunk. Since then, the North Carolina native has amazed spectators with his leaping ability at 6'1" while staying true to the fundamentals of the game.  

Prime Objective - Lonnie Harrell didn't have the flashiness of streetballer, but the guy possessed a fundamentally sound game and could score points in bunches, which became evident when he dropped 55 points on the AND1 team.

The Professor - Grayson Boucher hails from Keizer, Ore.; he joined AND1 in 2003 during their "Survivor" contest. His streetball reputation grew to legendary heights after hitting a game-winner at Madison Square Garden during the 2003 Tour.

Skip 2 My Lou  - Rafer Alston took his legendary streetball exploits all the way to the NBA.

Sik Wit It - Born Robin Kennedy, the Pasadena, Calif. native was given the nickname "Sik Wit It" from his friend, Reggie Cotton, who thought his moves were sick, on the concrete and everywhere in between.

Baby Shaq - Hailing from Washington, D.C., Baby Shaq is the enforcer in the paint with incredible size and a pro-ball style of play.

Philip "Hot Sauce" Champion was contacted on multiple occasions but did not express any desire to participate in the oral history.

RELATED : Grayson "The Professor" Boucher Explains What the Ball Up Summer Streetball Tour Is All About (Video)

DJ Set Free : It starts with the mixtape in '98. AND1 had a bunch of videotapes in the area of the kitchen of the office, and we used to go back there and watch them. There was all this old playground footage of Rafer [Alston] at the Rucker. Back then I was DJing, and I would play the tapes and turn the sound down and start DJing. That’s when it clicked, and I was like, ‘It would be incredible if we could package it and it would be the first ever video mixtape.'

I was working with Rawkus and they gave me some exclusive tracks to put over the video, and that’s how the idea came about. I was like, ‘It still needs a couple more things,’ so I called artists I knew, like Mos Def. And once I hosted it, we got the drops to come in, and then we took it back to AND1 and we were like, ‘We got something.’ That’s how the mixtape started. I remember we came back, and we were like, ‘OK how many tapes should we do?’ I think at first, we did 10,000 VHS’s, and it got so crazy, 'cause we took them to New York and Rucker, and after that we pressed like 100,000 VHS tapes.

We were like, ‘OK how many tapes should we do?’ I think at first, we did 10,000 VHS’s, and it got so crazy, 'cause we took them to New York and Rucker, and after that we pressed like 100,000 VHS tapes.

—DJ Set Free

Headache: I was the first, well, me and Waliyy [Main Event] were probably the first players to sign. AND1 came looking for players, and at the time I was probably one of the hottest young guards in the city of New York coming out of college. You know, just lifting the city up. And he approached me with this opportunity. We went around taping a little bit and Waliyy was arranging the first game in Jersey, and wanted to see how it was going to go before the [AND1 Mixtape] Tour was even thought about. They wanted to sell more T-shirts, I guess ‘cause that's what it was based on. That's when it first started.

So we wanted do it now, get a little bit of gear, a little bit of money, and it's like, OK we'll do it. It was something that we loved, and everyone figured it would be for a short period of time. I wasn't expecting it to be as big as it was. That was completely different. You know, 'Let's just try this and see if it works.' It was more like that. The first seven were: Future, we talked to him. Craft Ferguson, that went to New Mexico University. Half Man, Half Amazing, we picked up Shane The Dribbling Machine, Main Event, and Skip [2 My Lou]. And that was the first six guys that were actually a part of the tour. That was the ground phase.

The Dribbling Machine: Somebody was talking about a shoe company that wanted us to play a game in New Jersey. It wasn’t really a tour we were talking about. We just were talking about me, Main, and Half playing. That summer, we played at Rucker. I think we had won a championship that game, at the Rucker Park on Fridays. That tour right there, it was more of a game. When we found out a tour was coming, it was more like a year later after that first initial game.

Skip 2 My Lou : I heard of the tour in the mid-'90s sometime. The late-'90s actually, when I was coming home from college. They asked me to be a part of it.

Main Event : In the summer of '99, I met with someone from AND1 named J.R.—nice guy, not there no more. I spoke to a guy named J.R., talked to him on the phone, had a meeting in New York City me and him, affiliated with AND1, and he was like, ‘Yo, we just put 100,000 copies of Skip 2 My Lou out. We want you to be in Vol. 2. We’re going to take all of your footage and make a tape.’ I was hyped. He was like, ‘We wanna offer you a sneaker endorsement deal.’ You’re talking to a kid who played Rucker Park, played all around the world, AAU, All-American, stuff like that. So I was excited. ‘Word, a sneaker deal?’ That’s unheard of. I slept on it. Then it came to my mind—if I give them all of my footage, I’m going to be just as good as my last move. It would’ve just been a temporary type thing. I chilled for like a week, got back in touch with them.

The idea that I came out with in that week—I wanted to bring something to the table for other guys, not just me. Other guys who I played ball with for over ten years, something that we can do. The idea that I came up with was to take the best streetballers—I think it was five of us. It was Shane, myself, Half Man, Half Amazing, Aircraft, and Future. That was the five that I brought to the table. I said, ‘Let’s take five of the best streetballers in the world not in the NBA and present and promote their brand.’

AO : I was on the first tour. It was 2000 and I was playing a New York City game that summer. And then I was at HoopsTV.com at their office. AND1 was next door. I met the guy, Pete. I was in my first year out of college. What happened was, I had my tape—you know Skip's tape was out—so my man took my clip-tape for the pros, that the NBA had, took that tape and put music to it. The guy from AND1 got it. I went up there a couple times and they started sending me stuff.

Then like the end of July they mentioned the Tour, and was like, "you wanna go?" And that's how it started. We all flew to L.A. and it was like five of us, which was: Headache, Main [Event], Shane, Craft and Biz and me and [Hot] Sauce. That was the first game at Southwest College.

At first I said no, but then he said, you'll get paid $500 per game and I was like, who would turn that offer down? I accepted the offer and things took off from there.

—Baby Shaq 

Half Man, Half Amazing: We had a game at Rucker, and after the game, Main Event came over to me and said, ‘We might have something going on with AND1, would y’all be interested in playing?’ I said, ‘Of course.’ It was about six or seven of us. We had a couple of small games—had a game out in Linden, [N.J.], Main Event’s neighborhood, which we did pretty good. We had a couple of games after that at some small venues, and it just took off from there.

Prime Objective: When the AND1 Tour came to D.C. during the time that All-Star Weekend was in town in 2001, they offered me a contract, but I was still trying to get in the NBA. Later on, I played at Rucker Park on the New York All-Stars team. I had 55 points in that game and they offered me a contract again. At that point, I was playing in the NBDL.

But there are politics in everything. My last opportunity was with the New Jersey Nets. I actually got there through politics because Irv Gotti—who was the head of Murder Inc.—was going through a bidding war and one of the execs at another company was one of the owners of the Nets. Gotti told him to give me a shot, a fair look and everything will take care of itself. I went down there to work out and it went well. They brought me back the next day and they eventually put me on the Summer League team. I had a good summer, so they brought me to the Nets camp. It all ended though when they snatched me out of practice and the doctor scared me to death, saying he didn't like the readings I had. Crazy stuff. They said they didn't want me to die, but when I came back to my own doctor who I've had since college at Georgetown, he said I had the same readings that I've always had. It was all bullshit. After I was tired of chasing that NBA dream, I decided to join the AND1 Tour. 

Helicopter : In the summer of 2002, I just came home from college. I talked to one of my good friends, Tracy Williams, who actually did some work with Shane. I decided I was going to give it a try and see what happens. Once I got out there, Prime Objective spotted me from the college dunk contest, so he asked me to do a couple dunks and the rest is history.

Baby Shaq : I'd say, 2002. I heard about it but never went out. Then, the following year, the opposing team's coach at the time was Mike Ellis. He came to the gym looking for Pat The Roc and I was with Pat. Mike asked Pat who I was and eventually he came over, asking me to play against the AND1 team. At first I said no, but then he said, you'll get paid $500 per game and I was like, who would turn that offer down? I accepted the offer and things took off from there. I can honestly say I was in the right place at the right time.

Sik Wit It : The first time I heard about the tour, I was in Pasadena [Calif.] playing basketball in the gym by myself and someone came up to me, saying there was an AND1 tryout and that I should go out there. Someone gave me a ride and I did it.

The Professor:  I heard about the tour in 2001 when they were shooting it and then they actually came to Oregon in 2002 when I was in high school and I played against some of the guys in 2002. There's a clip of me in AND1 Mixtape Volume 6 , a lot of people don't know. Just one highlight. And then in 2003 they came back around, they came to Portland, Ore. and that was the first year they were doing the "Survivor" contest.

They needed the "Survivor" contest to look for the next unknown streetball player that would become the next member of the AND1 team. So I entered, ended up staying on the whole summer and won a contract at the end.

DJ Set Free : It’s funny, because ball players use rap music like a force. They listen to it and they work out to it, and I think a rapper speaks the words that a basketball player lives. From the rapper’s side of it, looking at a basketball player, it’s that big stage—it’s a different stage, money’s different.

It’s a dream for both sides, and they all grow up together. Basketball and hip-hop is like a marriage made up in the urban communities, really. Now it’s global, but back in the day I think it just went hand-in-hand.

Main Event : Think about it. When you see athletes period. What do they have on their head? They’re listening to some form of music. Whether it’s hip-hop, reggae, rock, jazz—the connection is there. We get hype off of music. That’s what we’re listening to. The connection is there.

Right now, hip-hop is in the same situation as streetball right now. Who’s real, who’s fake? Why D-Block, Styles P, or Jada not making the same money that Soulja Boy or these new names coming in the game are? 'Cause they learned the business. That’s because Styles ain’t gonna sign no 360 degree deal. When we was at AND1, we had contracts, we had salaries. Now guys is getting X amount of dollars per game. That’s going backwards.

Headache : I trained this way, I played this way. Basketball has such a rhythm and excitement to it. Everything you do with basketball, from the way you play to the way you dribble, is a feel. It's a feel. It's like, "I'm hot. I can feel that. Yeah." And the same thing with music and hip-hop. It's a touch. It's a feel. And music's the same way because to create that great song or that No. 1 hit—it's a feel. If a basketball player tells you he thought his move through before he made his move, he's lying.

Ball players use rap music like a force. They listen to it and they work out to it, and I think a rapper speaks the words that a basketball player lives.

Skip 2 My Lou : It's just the culture. When you grow up playing on the playgrounds of New York City, it comes with the territory. It kind of makes each other. I think it goes hand-in-hand.

AO : Anything urban's gonna be hip-hop. Rappers wanna be basketball players, basketball players wanna be rappers. 

Baby Shaq : For me, hip-hop and sports are all about emotion. You can't do anything without emotion. Once you're on the court or the stage, you can freestyle because there's no real guidelines to hip-hop or sports, except the rules that make us stay inside the lines. 

The Dribbling Machine: From the history of basketball, hip-hop, it’s all street related. We needed hip-hop to motivate us to play in most of these games. What motivated us wasn’t the people we played against—it was the music we listened to. Half Man, being from Brooklyn, I’ll never forget... I was a fan of Buckshot Shorty, and Fab 5. Half’s from Brooklyn, so it linked us on the down-low tip, and it said, "You know what? We got the same thing in common with basketball, and we love the same music." Hip-hop is very appreciated.

Half Man, Half Amazing :  Being at the age we at, we grew up with hip-hop. It automatically became a part of us. It was our adrenaline music, got us pumped for the game. Like we said, we wasn’t worried about who we was playing, we just wanted to get ourselves hyped-out, hyped-up, so we could go out there and do what we needed to do.

Hip-hop was our adrenaline music, got us pumped for the game. Like we said, we wasn’t worried about who we was playing, we just wanted to get ourselves hyped-out, hyped-up, so we could go out there and do what we needed to do. —Half Man, Half Amazing

Sik With It : People love music. When the people come out, they hear it and it brings out a certain vibe inside you. In hip-hop and basketball, it's all about doing your thing; every sound we make with our dribbling and the things we do, it just coincides together.

Helicopter : Streetball is an expression. Time changes, people change, but your expressions stay the same. It's just a way to let loose and express yourself. Not the illegal stuff, but... You know those things you're not supposed to do, but you get away with it? That's what it is.

The Professor : I think basketball and hip-hop are so synonymous because it's so popular in the inner city. Basketball is one of the cheapest sports. All you need is a hoop and a ball. Not even a hoop sometimes. You just go dribble. I think it just targets the same demographic. I just feel like it's a win-win with basketball and when AND1 combined them with the mixtapes I feel like it was golden.

Main Event : Vol. 2 is pivotal. If you look at any AND1 documents or how the whole thing went, they skip over Vol. 2 . But you can’t take out the history of what built up to this. Vol. 2 was very important, because now they got something to go off of.

We took the five major cities: It was New York, L.A., Chicago, Detroit, and Philly.  We’d go to the park—unknown territory—inner cities, the hood, whatever you call it, and be like, ‘Yo, we got next.’ They’d look at us like, ‘Who are these guys?’ We’d get on the court, display what we can do, and you gotta remember, when AND1 first started, it was all real basketball. It wasn’t the fake moves or the commercial comedy stuff. It’s just that the guys that I picked had a flair to their game that was entertaining but in the confines of the rules of basketball. That made it even more crazy. We played, and by the time you look up it might be like 10 people. You look around a little later, the whole community was out there.

Headache: Yeah, It was different. Before you take it for granted, like, "Aw, it's just basketball." We've been around 50 [Cent], we've been around Jay Z, we’ve been around Puffy. Like, we knew each other forever because we’re fans of them and vice versa. They sponsored teams that we played for coming up. To me the superstar stuff wasn't big to me. Like when all the superstars come watch the game and all that? That wasn't big for me. I grew up in Harlem with Dame, Cam, and Mase. The New York guys were used to the celebrity. But we played in front of some big crowds. I was used to it, though, because I played for Wisconsin in college.

We've been around 50 [Cent], we've been around Jay Z, we’ve been around Puffy... They sponsored teams that we played for coming up.

Skip 2 My Lou : I think the second year of the tour when I saw every city and state we went, everyone gravitated to it. Whenever we brought the tour bus through the neighborhood they loved it. 

AO : TV. When the TV hit, it was like, it was cool. We did the first tour in 2001. ESPN picked it up in 2002. And then you could just tell momentum was gaining as it was running. Think about it, we still have the highest-rated original entertainment on ESPN network besides Sportscenter . That in itself is crazy.

Helicopter : AO, Spyda and I would go to basketball camps and instead of learning a bounce pass or shooting, they wanted to dribble like Hot Sauce. That's when I realized that the AND1 Tour was changing the game.

Sik Wit It : After the third year, I realized that the AND1 Tour was a cultural phenomenon when we went platinum on Vol. 5. I knew hip-hop and basketball really went together, so I knew it was going to grow big.

The Dribbling Machine : I’m from the Bronx, the Edenwald Projects and I had my whole neighborhood wearing AND1. We wear Nikes, we wear three-four hundred dollar sneakers, and you go outside and you see the No. 1 guy in your neighborhood who everybody loves and respect, he got on the AND1. You got the neighborhood bullies, they bullyin’, they got on the AND1 sweatsuit. That’s when I knew it was down: when people stopped wearing Nikes, and stopped wearing Adidas. We had a following of people just wearing AND1 throughout the whole summer.

A perfect story: We were in Florida—Half-Man, Main Event, the AND1 guys—it was off tour, we were doing our regular streetball games, but AND1 was in town. The Detroit Pistons just won the NBA Championship. We were in a nightclub, and the they shouted us out and gave us more respect than the Detroit Pistons. I went to the DJ, I said, "Listen, we got Chauncey Billups, we got Ben Wallace in here." And their exact words were, "Man, we don’t care about them, y’all more popular than them right now." That was the reality check. We were more popular than NBA Champions. That was real big.

The Detroit Pistons just won the NBA Championship. We were in a nightclub, and the they shouted us out and gave us more respect than the Detroit Pistons. I went to the DJ, I said, 'Listen, we got Chauncey Billups, we got Ben Wallace in here.' And their exact words were, 'Man, we don’t care about them, y’all more popular than them right now.'

—The Dribbling Machine 

Half Man, Half Amazing:  When we started traveling—and we were going to places we had never been before—we were getting automatically recognized. That’s when I knew we were really onto something. Regular guys, walking through the airport, and the minute you step off, "Hey that’s the guys from—" and from there, the momentum just built up.

The Professor : I actually knew it was a cultural phenomenon before I was even on there because I really remember watching the AND1 mixtapes and hearing the buzz about it. I remember AND1 the clothing started to get hotter and I'm sure they were bringing in a lot of money with mixtapes. It was in ESPN Magazine. I actually read about the tour coming to Portland in ESPN the Magazine . I knew it was huge.

Baby Shaq :  When I came back home, people started looking at me differently. They were looking at me like I was an NBA player, and it felt good.

DJ Set Free : I remember one of the funniest things was when we were on tour, and all the guys were inside at like Footaction. We were in the South somewhere, and I was just standing outside by the tour bus and a car came by. A kid was pointing at me, and people knew who I was at the time. The car came back, and it looked weird—he was du-raged up, and he came out the car, and he’s staring at me, and I was just looking at him. He opened the trunk, and I was like, ‘What's about to happen?’ He pulled a ball out and just started dribbling, and I was just like, ‘Oh this is really crazy.’ I thought he was about to shoot me or kill me or something. It was like Boyz N’ The Hood meets Punk’d or something.

Headache: It was like a band of brothers who basically always had fun with each other no matter what, or get at each other. Then you had that one day, me and you might be tight but we gonna get on Shane today—then you ain't shit. It was like a brotherhood. You didn't know whose day it was gonna be to get fucked with. Two-hour snap sessions. Of course, being on the road people are gonna get on your nerves, but most of us knew each other from the basketball scene already.

Skip 2 My Lou : It was odd. It was odd. I think over the years we all got along well. But I think when it first started it was a clash of egos.

When we practiced, you would think we all hated each other. We didn't run plays, so it was basically a pick-up game with arguing, cursing, pushing—no punches thrown—but close to it.    —Prime Objective 

AO : You had your egos and your ups and downs because you've been on a bus with somebody from June to August. [There's] definitely gonna be some tension, but the vibe was cool. I mean, I was cool with everybody. When it comes to me I like to have fun so there was no ego with me. I'm not crying about the game. I ain't worrying about shit. Yeah, it's not really that serious. For me it was cool.

Baby Shaq : Being on the road, you're going to get into arguments from time to time. But that goes with everybody; NBA players do the same thing. The way I see it, if we don't argue, we don't really like each other.

Helicopter : We were a big family and just like a family, we didn't always get along. Certain guys stuck with each other and you had your different groups. Older guys stuck together. Me, Spyda, Professor and Baby Shaq hung out. AO was the ringleader and big brother who made sure nothing happened to us younger guys. Shane did the same thing, too. Good thing is that once everyone got on the court, it was just about basketball.

Prime Objective : We all used to go out together, but with everything, there's cliques. Myself, AO and Go Get It hung out. Main [Event] and Shane hung out together. But when we practiced, you would think we all hated each other. We didn't run plays, so it was basically a pick-up game with arguing, cursing, pushing—no punches thrown—but close to it.

The Dribbling Machine: For me, it was great, because we were the big brothers of the tour. If anything go down on the court, off the court, we were the big brothers. That’s what made it good, 'cause them guys came, they asked questions—they learned the game and the business at the same time.

The Professor : With AND1 there was always clashes, man. I don't think anyone hated each other but there was so much competitiveness in the air and when we hoop people really took stuff to heart. There was lot of tension all the time. But we loved each other at the end of the day. We'd get a little heated though.

Half Man, Half Amazing : We were all like brothers. If you had one mother that had 11 sons, of course there’s going to be some strife every once in a while. You had your issues. Every once in a while, you’d try to talk to somebody and they might be a little naive to what’s going on, and they might not want to hear it. But if you explain it to them and they want to hear it, a month down the line, two months down the line, they actually see it happen, and it’s like, "Hey, Main, Half, and Shane were right. I need to listen a little more now."

Sik Wit It : It was cool, man. Everyone came together. Everybody had their days but we gelled as a family. We rallied together when people had issues off the court. We would just build each other up.

Headache: I have two cities. When Riverbank [NYC] first opened, that's where I grew up playing at. For us to come back and play there, my stomping grounds, it was the best ever. We got over 2,000 people in there—it was flooded. When I took a picture, it's like wall-to-wall, no standing room, bleachers going to the sky. They don't even look real. The picture itself doesn't look real. Crazy. It's just incredible. That was one of the best things for me, to come home.

The second one I love, I love going to L.A. to play because they think they're great. You know how they are, the Sun Coast, so I loved going out there and beating up on them. They had some good ballplayers but we always came out on top. When we walked in the room we already knew we were good so it was like, "When we come out of here we're gonna step on y'all." And we're gonna take the sunshine. Like, "Yeah, we're here, we're gonna kick you in the ass and then sit down with your girls and get a sun tan." The game in L.A. was like a rock concert, like five to six thousand came out.

The game in L.A. was like a rock concert. "Yeah, we're here, we're gonna kick you in the ass and then sit down with your girls and get a sun tan."

Sik Wit It : When we played at Madison Square Garden in New York... They don't really run plays with AND1 and streetball, but I was blessed enough for them to run a play for me and I knocked it down. Peter Vecsey came up to me and said, "You're one hell of a basketball player" and coming from him, that's big out here in New York. But, after that, Professor hit the game-winner, so I didn't get all the praise. But that's just how it happens.

Skip 2 My Lou : Venice! Every summer they play ball in Venice Beach. For us to go out there and add another three to four thousand fans to their city, that was big.

AO : D.C. in 2005. We were doing the Crash the Course that year so we were going to most of the big cities like two days before the game, and go to their Pro-Am league or whatever and play against them. So the following year we got beat by 20 in D.C. But it was only because a lot of folks said we couldn't play. So you go in and you're trying to prove to yourself. As individuals we all played good but as a team we didn't. So the next year we go back down there. No fucking smiling. No playing around, and they had a better team. They had Mike Beasley, Brian Chase. They had a better team that year, and we beat them. I like that type of basketball. We proved to them that we could play ball.

Prime Objective : Our international tour, when we first got to Japan. Oh my goodness, it was big. It was a sea of fans, all outside and waiting on us. It's a moment that I will never forget.

Helicopter :  New York City. It was first time going to New York. Being from North Carolina, I got to play in the Garden a couple times and all I can think about was where Jordan made a shot on the court. But, it was a great experience, seeing how everyone comes together no matter what's going on.

The Dribbling Machine : There’s nothing like coming home to New York City, the Garden, and you know AND1 used to give us tickets. Just in New York City, we had 200 comped tickets. I came back to my old neighborhood, came back to the projects, introduced the AND1 Mixtape Tour to some of the kids.

The Professor : I would say Jackson, Miss. That was the most memorable for me because: 1. It was the first time that we beat AND1 on the tour. I don't know if that was their first loss. It was like one of their first losses. Maybe their second. Ever. That was huge. 2. It was this crazy sold-out crowd at Jackson State. Third, David Banner performed at halftime. And it was insane. He was like one of the hottest out right then.

Headache:  I think I'm a little different than most guys. I had a lot of moments that were exciting during a game. And I think for me it's more about the kids. The response that we have from the kids. We walk into a building and underprivileged kids who'd never think they could see us go crazy. The fact that we can put a smile on the kids' faces when we walk in the building. I go walking down the line to sign autographs because I wanted everybody to get one. I'm walking down the line and a mom was upset because her daughter didn't want to get off the line to go to the bathroom because she wanted Hot Sauce's autograph. She didn't want to leave without the autograph but Hot Sauce had already left and went inside because the fifteen minutes was up.

I go walking down the line to sign autographs because I wanted everybody to get one. I'm walking down the line and a mom was upset because her daughter didn't want to get off the line to go to the bathroom because she wanted Hot Sauce's autograph.

So me, Escalade—God rest his soul—and AO got down to her and we signed autographs. She peed on herself, so they had to change her clothes or whatever and we signed autographs and we hugged and took pictures with her. She's one of the last ones. That little girl, man. That showed me we weren’t just playing streetball anymore. It was about us but at the end of the day it was what we did after that. It was what we touched and what we inspired.

DJ Set Free : It was seeing Hot Sauce after we just picked him up down in Atlanta, and he’s dribbling. It was like a mixture of Michael Jackson’s dancing and David Copperfield’s trickery. It was this moment where he was doing his thing dribbling in front of a defender, and he threw this pass. The ball would hover in the air, and the defender would turn around and always look, and then he would just grab the ball back and just shoot it. It was like, ‘Oh goodness.’ It was so dope.

Sik Wit It : I've had a lot of them. I have played a lot of basketball and doing pretty well in a ton of cities, but it's a blessing when the kids come up to me and tell me that I did a good job. I can't point out one single moment.

AO : You know there's too many, man. We done did so much and broke so many barriers with the streetball stuff, even today to be able to still be doing this. I don't know man. I mean, alright, shit...probably our first game in Japan. That was crazy. It was like the first time we was over there and it was like...when I say 11,000, it was 11,000 and like 9,000 stayed for autographs. It was crazy outside because they had the joint set up. 

Main Event : My most memorable moment was seeing it go down. That’s my most memorable one. It’s always stuck in my head, seeing the company just go down, because they went for the dollars and not the community.

Baby Shaq : The very first game. I didn’t think streetball could go as far as it did. It was a big deal for me.

Helicopter: Anything with the fans. I can go over to them, sign something and they know my story, so they believe that if I made it, they can too. Everyone sees the NBA guys, but they can't relate to them. You see them on TV, but we were always around. People could see us and that was always great.

The Dribbling Machine : Honestly, it’s too many, but the most remembered moment is just being around each other. We did everything together, as far as me, Main, and Half Man—we were the OGs. We was used to that type of life. Teaching to me was the most important thing. Teaching the guys how to perform, know when to play real basketball, know when to set a guy up. That was my most memorable thing.

The Professor : That whole year in 2003. Just the fact that it went from a recreational opportunity to a career opportunity. I was really just going to the game as a fan. If I had to pick one extact moment it would be when I had a game-winning shot in New York. We actually beat the AND1 team at Madison Square Garden.

Headache: We had a contract with AND1. We signed an endorsement deal with them but on the back-end when we did the tour, I helped them sign to Pepsi. I went into the interview, I talked to the marketing guy and he loved us. He loved our personalities and he was like "I love this guy," and they came aboard. Same with Lay's potato chips. But we didn't see that money. That money went to AND1. We were in the commercial and stuff like that. We see appearance fee money and stuff like that. You know how they do the contract shit and break it down.

We weren’t on it to make money, so the AND1 contract was good, because it was more than what an average cop made. I seen the six digits. Everybody didn’t have the opportunity to see six digits, but I had the opportunity to see six digits.

—The Dribbling Machine

Sik Wit It : I was on a set contract with AND1. We would get paid every two weeks. The money was good for the most part—I mean, you always want more. It just so happened that I got blackballed for a couple of years from a couple of people, like a New York cat named [coach] Steve Burke. He was a real trip. We were just playing streetball, having a good time and it became too much like a business. After they fired certain people, he came in, gave affirmative action and was treating us like we didn't have a sense of our own. We had to get rid of that cat. He messed up a lot of things, but hey, he has someone to answer to just like we all do.

AO : We all had endorsement contracts with the company. And then with that, I wound up swinging... you know, make moves. Because you're on tour and you're meeting other sponsors, so I had my contract with AND1 and then I swung and had a contract with 'Boost Mobile.' I was endorsed for that. Then a little thing with 'Mountain Dew' and stuff like that. We did the video game—both video games. I was in the first video game Street Hoops then I was in an AND1 game.

Helicopter : We all had contracts, so I wasn't worried about anything else. It was a multi-million dollar company.

The Dribbling Machine: Everybody’s contracts were different. Everybody knows in the beginning we started out with $5,000. We weren’t on it to make money, so the AND1 contract was good, because it was more than what an average cop made. I seen the six digits. Everybody didn’t have the opportunity to see six digits, but I had the opportunity to see six digits.

People think that AND1 was all robbing us and stuff. They didn’t know about us, man. Yeah, they made millions of dollars, but what do you tell a kid that makes $60,000 a year with no education? Guys with no education, they're making the same money as a guy with a Master’s degree. The paper’s good. Nowadays, everybody’s getting taken advantage of and there’s no money in it now. That’s the problem with that.

Half Man, Half Amazing :  The guys worked out their own deals. Everybody had their own contracts. I can’t speak for everybody about what their contract looked like, but I know everybody had their own contract.

Main Event : When we was at AND1, we had contracts, we had salaries. Now guys is getting x amount of dollars per game. That’s going backwards. If [the company] eats, we gotta eat. My thing is, don't rob the community and don't rob the fans. Yeah, we got paid x amount. Six figures for some guys over three months. In the offseason we need to be in the schools of the same cities we play in during the summer. We need to build relationships with those people, don't just promote when it's time to play a game there. Let's get an AND1 scholarship, let's leave something.

Main Event : This is no disrespect to any of the players, I’m just telling you the truth. Things started changing when it started going from ‘getting legends’ to where AND1 started ‘creating legends,’ it messed with the fan’s subliminal minds. You keep showing this person. We started getting guys who didn’t even make their high school team. Started getting guys that never played outside.

When we picked up Hot Sauce, we were trying to teach him basketball. And teach him how to play confined within the rules.  I tell people, ‘Hot Sauce good, he’s cool.’ I tell them, ‘He’s one of the best illegal ball handlers I’ve seen in my lifetime.’ Instead of him learning, I think Sauce single-handedly messed up what streetball is. The culture of streetball. Sauce is more of a Globetrotter, could’ve had a great career with the Globetrotters or the Harlem Wizards or the Generals or whatever. They didn’t really understand what I was saying. I’m not hating on him, but this is what streetball is.

Things started changing when it started going from ‘getting legends’ to where AND1 started ‘creating legends,’ it messed with the fan’s subliminal minds. —Main Event

Headache: I think when it started to get commercial for me. You know I eat and sleep basketball. This is my baby. I love it. Here and now when I play, when I go get different jobs and I go play ball in Iran and coach and stuff like that, I eat and sleep basketball. You know basketball's given me so much, taken me to so many different places and my thing is: yeah I want us to have fun, I want us to play hard—but the integrity of the game has always been there. That's what I grew up on. When it started getting to the point where I'm playing against a guy, he's trying to do my trick on me. They're trying to do Hot Sauce's trick on Hot Sauce. That ain't what the tour's about. But the guys in the media room they're telling the team, "You gotta put on a good show." That wasn't what it was about. What it was about was, you let them play their game and we gonna put the show on. That's what it's about. They can try to do what they wanna do but we gonna put the show on.

The Professor : In early 2006 the Tour got bought out for like $400-$500 million. The four guys who owned [the brand] and started in '93, they split it four ways. When they sold it, it got in the hands of a guy who lived out in California and his wife, and they were both in like their 70s or 80s, and they didn't know anything about basketball.

AO : I left because we were trying to get our own joint going when AND1 was really disbanding, going both ways, that was the 2007 year when we were all signed. So it really wasn't like, just leaving going somewhere else. It was just the fact that we were trying to build our own brand.

Prime Objective : I left because of the coach, Steve Burke. I didn't like the direction they were going, they sold the company and Burke was controlling. I was 30 at the time, so I wasn't a kid. He tried to change it into more of a college thing and tried to treat us as such. He used to fine me and other people for stupid stuff.

Helicopter : My grandma and others have instilled in me to never be content with one thing, so when I wasn't on the AND1 Tour, I was playing overseas. I’m a basketball player. I grew up running plays, doing screens, things like that. Streetball is what I had to learn, so it was always good for me to go back and forth.

Half Man, Half Amazing: It was when we started going into the bigger venues, they started trying to turn it into a circus act more than basketball. What we always wanted to do was, regardless of upper management and however they wanted to have AND1 perceived, we wanted to let everyone know, "Hey, when you come here, regardless of what you think, you’re going to get some real basketball. You’re going to get a game."

Also, when things started changing, we saw that this might not be a good fit for us 'cause we saw what the management was trying to do. They were trying to get the older guys out, meaning me, Main, and Shane, trying to push us out.

The Dribbling Machine : I knew that from day one when I first signed the contract—I was already 30 years old—it was always a business opportunity to get my family situation financially ready. I also knew once you start reading magazines, you start hearing other guys are on the team. Like one guy told me that Hot Sauce is better than Allen Iverson. Once I start hearing that, and the turn it was taking, it was time for me to turn away.

Headache: There are no real killers. There are no real guys that come out and dominate the game the way we did. Everybody's trying to create these elite teams like the NBA's doing. When I was growing up I never wanted to play with Skip. I wanted to play against him. I want to play against the best to see where I measure myself at. If I play against Skip and he beats me, I'm in the park the next day or the same night.

Skip 2 My Lou : It hasn't changed. To be honest, it's the same. It's just...the AND1 Tour died and the fans just went their way. They love streetball.

DJ Set Free : I think now kids want to be dribblers. What AND1 did was take Magic Johnson's basketball play. Kids wanted to be that "Showtime." You had to run a whole court before you got to the rim. Now, as soon as they take the ball out of bounds they want to move. They want to figure out how they can throw that pass a different way, so we always heard it. A lot of the stuff you couldn't do in the league, but then you did start seeing a lot of stuff from the tapes being done in the league.

Main Event : Now when you go out there like that, everybody knows what to expect. I play ball hard. When I broke my head and got 18 staples, that’s not rehearsed. That’s not fake. When me and Half Man shattered the backboard, that’s not fake.   What I’m getting from parents is like, ‘Yo, my son just got cut from the team for trying to put the ball in his shirt. It became kind of messed up, and I felt bad. But when I go tell these guys, ‘Yo, let’s teach how to basketball game.’

People don’t know, Hot Sauce used to throw the ball in the crowd after he break somebody down because he couldn’t get to the rack. He didn’t alley-oop it or what have you, because he couldn’t finish a play. He’d throw the ball in the crowd. At the end of the day, sports is about scoring, and stopping the other team from scoring. I thought that’s what it was about. It got off of that and just got to where they were saying, ‘Okay, we’re just gonna use and take the entertainment value from this.’

AO : It's like music, I guess. It had its ups and downs and bumps. You know, music doesn't sell and then it's selling again, like rap. There's this rap and there's dance rap and then it's back to gangster. So we're trying to reinvent the game and give it another buzz. 

It’s not as good as when we were playing. It just seemed as though people back then were really working on their game. Nowadays, it seems like people just think they can be good without recognizing the hard work it took. —Helicopter

Prime Objective : It's changed a lot. With summer streetball, NBA players are starting to take over. And when the NBA players aren't playing, the turnout isn't so good. That's a mistake that was made because of the lockout season since the people running the leagues started promoting the league's players instead of Joe who lived across the street. You gotta keep your regulars at the top.   

Helicopter :  It’s not as good as when we were playing. It just seemed as though people back then were really working on their game. Nowadays, it seems like people just think they can be good without recognizing the hard work it took to be a Professor, Spyda or AO. The younger generation just thinks you can walk on a court and do certain things, but that’s not the case.

Baby Shaq : It’s more real now. We’re playing more straight basketball. But we’ve almost brought it back to those AND1 days. Just a couple more steps.

Sik Wit It :  Streetball can still get big for years to come.

Half Man, Half Amazing: The skill level has dropped a little bit. The thing about streetball now is, from my experience, a guy will come out and have one good game, and he’s the man. Whereas in my era, you had one good game, you ain’t prove shit. You have to be consistent with what you do.

The Dribbling Machine: It’s changed tremendously. I just came from a streetball game, and a fan came up to me, and the question that he asked me was, "Shane, who’s nice out here?" And I knew what he meant by that. It was a bunch of OK players. You could go to a park in New York City during the day and it’s empty now. When I grew up, every park was crowded. We’re going through a social network world. Everything is Facebook, Twitter, so the kids are spending more time on the PlayStation than they're working on their own game. That’s what’s killing streetball right now.

The Professor : Guys have different styles of play playing now. The energy is the same. The game being up-tempo's the same. Guys still jump out of the gym. Our guards are still some of the best ball-handlers in the world. You just got different guys.

The Dribbling Machine : Right now, this is my third year of running my own non-profit organization which deals with over 800 kids. It’s futuretalentbball.com. It’s all grant money. I take troubled, at-risk kids, and I put them in a basketball league. I actually threw a basketball league where I lived in the Bronx, and these were my enemies. I know of people who stood in jail for killing people in the neighborhood who got into it today. I came back to this neighborhood to prove we could do something positive in the neighborhood, and to just show these kids a different life with basketball. The goal ain’t basketball here. The goal is to educate these kids and just keep them off the street and keep them in a positive environment.

Headache:  I talk to a lot of the guys. I talk to Professor every once in a while. Probably more Professor than anybody. Lot of guys are still running around. I talk to most of all the guys that live in the city. I see maybe Shane most of the time. I see Future all the time. I see Biz on and off. Yeah, I'm in Cincinnati. I'm there with them for this season and then I'll be in New York in July doing camp. I do a camp. I do training in New York for that program they do when they do the arts in sports thing. I've been doing that for like five years with them. I do public speaking with kids. I do everything. I'm a true Latino Jamaican black guy.

Skip 2 My Lou : Man, just doing a lot of camps, clinics in different countries, working with AAU teams, coaching prep school ball. Just trying to stay busy with basketball.

While the game in Japan stresses fundamentals, the AND1 experience taught me a lot because there's nothing that someone can do over there that I haven't already seen. I had to guard AO every day. I know that every day at practice, I would guard some of the best players in the world. —Helicopter

AO : Yeah I'm on the Ball-Up Tour now. It's fun. As you see it's a different presentation. That's the thing for TV, the way it look. Keeping the crowd involved when there's timeouts at halftime and stuff like that. 

Helicopter : I just finished playing another year overseas in Japan, led the league in scoring and second in steals. I'm home for the summer, but I'll be back over there in September. For the last two years, I was playing for the Saitama Broncos and now I gotta decide where I'll play next season. While the game in Japan stresses fundamentals, the AND1 experience taught me a lot because there's nothing that someone can do over there that I haven't already seen. I had to guard AO every day. I know that every day at practice, I would guard some of the best players in the world. It would just boost my confidence and make me play harder. 

Main Event : Today I run a company called Ball For Life. The whole basis is building experiences for life through sports, education, and entertainment. You put all those three things, now we’re grooming the future. We planting seeds. We gonna watch it sprout. Going back to that community. We’re gonna leave legacies on and off the court, because that’s what this kind of about. I’m able to make money from what I did without the ball bouncing, that’s what we’re trying to do with these guys. Set themselves up after ball.

Prime Objective : I started my own marketing and advertising agency called Prime & Co. I have an AAU program called Team Prime and I’m also working on doing a reunion tour. We don’t have anyone signed to it right now, but many of them are interested in coming back to play and 2014 is my set goal. I have a basketball tournament called the XBX. I’m already in talks with the sponsors of that tourney and tying them in with the reunion tour.

Baby Shaq : I’m playing with Ball Up now and we’re bringing streetball to the next level.

Half Man, Half Amazing: I recently just got back into teaching. I’m back in assistant teaching with the Department of Education. A friend of mine named Larry V, we’re working on a company called the Blacktop Association, where we acquire some players and start our own tour. Maybe do some things with Shane and Main Event with their Ball For Life Foundation.

The Professor : It's kind of funny, I never ever stopped touring. I never ever stopped playing streetball. After my last AND1 season in '08, for about four or five months we were doing streetball exhibitions with this company called 'Streetball Live.' It was run by this lady who was doing these games all over the world. After that I joined Ball Up. They started with the idea of wanting to clean up where AND1 made the mistakes and then make the tour the main focus. It's been great so far. We're in year three. We're in the middle of our second nationwide tour.

Headache: I think we had an incredible influence. I think a lot of people don't want to give us credit for it. Even now. When I watch NBA games and just basketball in general, even the new guy, like Damian Lillard and all them, think about the new adidas commercial. We changed, forget about basketball, we changed the face of marketing for all sports. Even tennis has a hood-style commercial with the music playing, the rap music. You've probably seen it. I laughed. I tell everybody, I said "No way," because we had disagreements and because we couldn't come together as a group when we needed too, we should all be millionaires with no problem. They didn't play music in arenas while the game was going on. They weren't playing no Jay Z song. No hip-hop. The 112. Peaches and Cream. That shit was all conducted by us.

You’re on TV, people knew your name, we had people running behind the bus, people in the arena almost fall off balconies for a sweaty towel. It was like being part of a rock group.

—Helicopter

Sik Wit It : It was a great experience. It wasn’t great all the time when you’re on the road, but it’s all about the many people you can reach when you’re traveling across the world.

Skip 2 My Lou:  I think a lot of guys in the NBA, they grew up playing streetball. Not necessarily playing the And1 style of streetball, but just playing streetball in their neighborhood, like, street tournaments. That's what all these guys grew up playing so they can relate. Streetball had a culture before And1. It depends what city and state you in. A lot of inner cities...they don't mind if the tour rolls through or not because they gonna play basketball in the streets. It was fun. Something different than just a NBA game, a high school game or a college game. To me it's something fun—something to go to and something great to be a part of.

Main Event : [ Sighs .] AND1 was a company that was fueled by the legends. But what is the legacy now? Huh? There is no legacy. The legacy is that we lost Flash, man. We lost Escalade. We lost Conrad McRae. That might be the only legacy. It was a phenom that was taken to heights unknown but my thing is we could've still been in the driver's seat of this brand. The legends have a legacy because we continue as we did before AND1.

AO : Just in general, it brought the fun back. For them years, the first couple years, it just brought the fun back to basketball in general—like, streetball. You gonna have your naysayers and your doubters [ Laughs ]. Fuckin' Red Auerbach told us we was fuckin' up the game. I was like "It's not like we got a DVD about doing dumb shit. We just playing and if you like the show, watch the show." And it was funner then a motherfucker. That's it. I'd tell them it was funner then a motherfucker. It was a helluva ride.

Helicopter : Man, it was excitement every day. Every day there was something new. You’re on TV, people knew your name, we had people running behind the bus, people in the arena almost fall off balconies for a sweaty towel. It was like being part of a rock group.

Baby Shaq: It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me. I got to travel and see the world for free, all because of this basketball.

The Professor : It was one of the most exciting forms of basketball, ever. Honestly, it was a worldwide sensation. It was some of the most exciting basketball ever to be played anywhere.

Half Man, Half Amazing :  It allowed basketball players to experiment with different types of moves, taking chances, and in some ways, it kind of opened up the NBA a little bit. They knew they had some competition on their hands. They had to let these cats freestyle just a little, tiny bit than what they’re normally used to seeing in organized NBA basketball.

Honestly, it was a worldwide sensation. It was some of the most exciting basketball ever to be played anywhere.

—The Professor

The Dribbling Machine: For me, it was a double-edged sword. A catch-22. It had a good mark on streetball as far as giving jobs, giving kids job opportunities, and other kids got to make money, and kids got to see and touch people they see on TV. But as far as the game itself, it kind of tainted basketball. I used to always tell the kids, "If you want to house a basketball team, don’t be like Hot Sauce." It was good at the time, but years later, it hurt New York City, and it hurt basketball, because people blamed us for kids walking and traveling, which kids been doing that. The Globetrotters been doing that way before.

As far as the NBA, it was big on the NBA. People could say it or not, but And1 was this close to being the next NBA. As far as a popularity contest, if you wasn’t an NBA All-Star, you couldn’t compare with And1.

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Streetball: The AND 1 Mix Tape Tour

Streetball documents the greatest basketball players in the world who don't play organized ball. Streetball documents the greatest basketball players in the world who don't play organized ball. Streetball documents the greatest basketball players in the world who don't play organized ball.

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AND1 turns 30: ‘Trash Talk’ tees, mixtape tours and NBA players wearing its shoe

It’s been about 15 years since Duke Tango, the legendary voice of the AND1 Mixtape Tour, last brought streetball fans his one-of-a-kind, on-court, in-game commentary. Countless “Ay, yo!” remarks after a nice move. The classic “Oh, baby!” response after a big play.

AND1 made braggadocious talk, showmanship and sublime ballhandling mainstream. With the company’s officially celebrating its 30th anniversary Sunday, Tango (born Thomas Mills) is excited for the people who made his time on the tour special.

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“The fans, the fans,” Tango said. “Giving the fans what they want. Making them come to the arena, making them leave happy — or you come in happy, you leave happier.”

AND1 as a global product, on and off the basketball court, did more than make fans happy. It made an impact on the sport that is still felt by many. It made wearing “Trash Talk” T-shirts fashionable. It challenged basketball shoe powers like Nike, Adidas and even Reebok and Fila. It made streetball legends famous internationally. It also brought flashy on-court play to a new audience in the 1990s and normalized it for modern-day audiences.

AND1 brought back its famous open runs last month as part of its 30th-anniversary celebration. The company also is using its “Paint the Park” initiative to upgrade courts around the country.

Thirty years of existence is something Dexter Gordon doesn’t take for granted. Gordon, the brand director for Galaxy Universal, the parent company for AND1, has worked with AND1 for more than a decade and believes the influence of the company cannot be understated, as the culture became part of the basketball world beyond AND1 tours. The style and swagger infiltrated the NBA game.

“I always say AND1 and those mixtape players should be in the basketball Hall of Fame,” Gordon said. “They changed the culture, from everything with how they dressed, how they played the game, the mixtapes, the (tour) bus, the trash-talk tees. The brand and those mixtape players change the culture, and they should be included in the hall of fame, period.”

AND1’s story stems from Seth Berger, Jay Coen Gilbert and Tom Austin, three University of Pennsylvania graduate students who designed T-shirts that included slogans heard in pickup basketball games. The shirts appropriately were marketed as “Trash Talk” tees.

“What made them popular was they were synonymous of what was going on at the time: a lot of playground ball, a lot of trash talking, a lot of players trying to not only hone their skills but solidify their name and their game in selected parks and cities,” said Rafer Alston, known to AND1 and the streetball world as “Skip To My Lou,” before, during and even after an 11-year career in the NBA . “It was the perfect storm at the right time. It was what we were all thinking about saying or doing at the time.”

Y’all don’t know how 🔥 these and1 shirts were in the early 2000’s😂 pic.twitter.com/rX3maUemTs — Hoop Fiends 🏀💉 (@hoopfiends) March 21, 2021

Among the multiple shirt slogans:

• “I’m sorry. I thought you could play.”
• “What’s wrong? Momma forget to pack your game?”
• “Pass. Save yourself the embarrassment.”
• “I’m the bus driver. I take everyone to school.”

“Growing up in New York City playing streetball and basketball, trash talking was part of the game. That could really throw you off your game,” said AND1 Mixtape Tour star Shane Woney, better known as “Shane the Dribbling Machine” because of the way he handled the basketball and frustrated defenders. “You shoot an airball, somebody might just start yelling at you, and everybody’s laughing — and these were the OGs, these weren’t even the younger guys. I mean, former pros and guys like that.

“I don’t remember all of the (T-shirt) sayings, but some of my favorites were super disrespectful.”

The shirts, featuring the logo of a muscular, faceless, shirtless player wearing baller shorts, were marketed everywhere in 1993, but it was the streetball scene where sporting them made the most sense. Three years later, AND1 added to its apparel movement by designing and launching its first pair of shoes.

Stephon Marbury, then with the Minnesota Timberwolves , was the brand’s first NBA ambassador and first wore the shoe in the league.

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by oNLy CooL SHoeS (@sneakersrules)

From there, AND1 took off. The NBA and streetball cultures meshed.

“Back in the day, 40 percent of the NBA used to wear AND1, and they were all not signed. They just wanted to be part of that movement,” Gordon said. “I mean, you had guys getting AND1 tattoos . It just meant something to them.”

In 1998, AND1 received a grainy, low-quality video — a mixtape featuring a young, talented point guard who made exciting move after move. He almost pranced when he orchestrated a fast break. It was streetball at its finest.

The ballhandler’s name: Rafer Alston. He earned the “Skip To My Lou” nickname from Tango while playing on the streetball courts. That videotape would soon be known as the “Skip tape.” AND1 edited and reprinted 50,000 copies in 1999, and it became the company’s first basketball mixtape .

“I didn’t have any idea about the direction the tape was going and how it would capture the hearts and minds of everyone,” Alston said. “Everything was happening so fast. We were ascending into rock-star status. We were just going about our business, going to different cities, putting on these shows and giving the fans a time to remember.

“But it all started from the first tape, and to this day, people still have a love affair for that tape.”

The AND1 mixtapes became a cultural phenomenon in the early 2000s. Mixtapes in the earlier distribution days were given as a gift to those who purchase AND1 products. Roughly 200,000 of the Skip tapes were distributed in three weeks.

Magic Johnson is one of the greatest and flashiest passers of all time, but he was often viewed as a showman in the 1980s, someone who made a pass pretty when it didn’t have to be. Moves and actions from the mixtapes of the 2000s, however, began finding their natural places in the NBA. Allen Iverson’s crossover dribbles. Jason “White Chocolate” Williams’ handles and incredible passes. Kevin Garnett’s dunks and bravado. What was seen in streetball became commonplace in the world’s most respected professional basketball league.

Woney said it was a weird feeling at first — almost like “more of a scam” — to have so many people watching the tapes, considering they were professional basketball players at the time. But once business picked up, streetballers were being eyeballed similarly to movie stars. More importantly, NBA players were taking notice.

“Most of them were passionate because they come from where we come from,” Woney said of the NBA players. “Where they played, it was totally structured, but to see guys out there playing totally free, it was almost as if we were saying what they couldn’t say.”

Lisa Schein is the senior vice president of brand development and marketing for Galaxy Universal. Though she has several reasons to love the brand, her all-time favorite AND1 memory came in 2000.

It involved a dunk contest in Oakland, Calif., and an incredible leaper wearing red and white AND1 Tai Chi shoes.

“For me, and it was personal, it was the Vince Carter slam dunk contest,” Schein said.

Carter’s performance was one of the greatest — if not the greatest — in NBA slam dunk contest history . His first dunk was a 360 windmill. The second was a windmill in which he started behind the backboard. The third was a between-the-legs special off a bounce from teammate and cousin Tracy McGrady.

The fourth dunk mesmerized the Oakland crowd, as Carter put his entire forearm in the rim. His fifth and final dunk was a safer one compared with the others — a two-handed jam from just inside the free-throw line.

Carter’s footwear made that night even sweeter. As someone getting out of a Puma deal, Carter, just before signing a new deal with Nike, tried a few new shoes for comfort . He chose to wear the AND1 Tai Chi for the dunk contest.

“I was aware of the brand in its earlier times, but that dunk contest … it was out of nowhere, so iconic, so unexpected,” Schein said. “It catapulted the brand and the product into the Hall of Fame product we think it should be. It really cemented our history.”

Until 2008, the AND1 Mixtape Tour was a streetball mainstay. Some of the greatest nicknames ever said on a mic by Tango — “Hot Sauce,” “The Professor,” “Main Event,” “Escalade,” “50,” “Half Man, Half Amazing” and many others — became household names as they toured cities that started in the United States but branched out to more than 30 countries.

Tango was one of the trendsetters for streetball in-game emcees. Many tournaments in and around New York City now have local celebrities attempting to give Tango-like energy for their audiences.

But very few could introduce a player — and keep that player relevant — like Tango.

“The nicknames he gave us were important to the success of all of us,” Alston said. “Who would have ever thought that Duke gave us a nickname and it would be with us the rest of our lives?

“Some of us became legendary guys because of our nicknames. I remember going to the park, and before you even got to the park, you can hear him on the microphone down the block. You just knew it was a special, big-time game going on with him there.”

Under Galaxy Universal, which bought AND1 in 2011, the idea was to reignite the product but with more of a grassroots perspective. AND1 had a couple of owners before Galaxy, but Galaxy is looking to bring back some of the things that made AND1 so attractive. The return of streetball runs is an example.

From T-shirts and apparel, to mixtapes and tours, to impactful community service, AND1’s brand stays alive. It’s found a home at Walmart stores, where shoes and clothing are available for those looking for quality gear without paying high prices.

To Schein, it’s all about staying relevant.

“Thirty years is pretty iconic,” Schein added. “We are approaching it not only as a celebration but as a way to reintroduce the brand to a younger generation that’s not as familiar with us. It means a lot to us that we’ve been around that long. It shows tremendous customer loyalty. If you mention AND1 to people who grew up around it, you immediately see their faces light up. There’s a connection there.”

That connection was due largely to the players on the tour. They weren’t NBA stars, but they did things on the court that players of all ages and levels tried to emulate.

Alston spent time in the NBA with the Milwaukee Bucks , Toronto Raptors , Miami Heat , Houston Rockets , Orlando Magic and New Jersey Nets. He reached the NBA Finals with the Magic in 2009. But there’s still a generation that knows him as “Skip To My Lou.” His AND1 style reached so many fans.

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Rafer Alston Fan Page (@theskipfiles)

The apparel jump-started the brand, but the mixtapes and tours not only became AND1’s bread and butter but also created many global stars. Woney dazzled audiences at Rucker Park way before AND1. Waliyy “Main Event” Dixon played at Rutgers and helped develop the first AND1 game and tour. Philip “Hot Sauce” Champion became a star through his ability to embarrass defenders with his ballhandling. Aaron “AO” Owens threw some of the best alley-oops in all levels of basketball.

Grayson “The Professor” Boucher earned his way onto the tour in 2003 and has transformed a very popular streetball lifestyle into appearances in movies, most recently “Hustle,” starring Adam Sandler. Anthony “Half Man, Half Amazing” Heyward earned his nickname when Tango saw him dunk on a man twice his size.

And let’s never forget Antoine “Flash” Howard, Troy “Escalade” Jackson or Tyron “Alimoe” Evans. Howard was a South Side Chicago phenom who befriended the New York-heavy AND1 roster and impressed with his leaping ability for a player standing only 6 feet tall. He died of complications with a brain tumor in 2004 . He was 28 years old.

Jackson, nicknamed after the Cadillac luxury SUV, was the younger brother of basketball commentator and former NBA point guard Mark Jackson. He stood 6 feet 10 and was listed at 375 pounds, but he had incredible handles and threw some of the prettiest passes on the tour. Escalade died of hypertensive heart disease in 2011 . He was 38 years old.

Evans was called “Alimoe,” but he had another nickname: “The Black Widow.” He was a 6-foot-7 point guard whom many believed had the talent to make it to the NBA. He could dribble, pass, shoot and defend — and he appeared to do it all with minimal effort. He died of complications with diabetes in 2013 . He was 37 years old.

AND1 now is looking for its next generation of streetball players with its open runs. Tango said the key to success is tapping into the new generation — similar to how the legends did it 30 years ago.

“The little kids, they’re going to see it. They’re going to want to be a part of it,” Tango said. “That’s what I’m trying to tell my people. Let’s get these little kids involved. Our thing is a family thing, and I love it.”

A little bit everything that made up a big thing ☄️ #and1life #and1openrunnyc #and1openrun #and1 pic.twitter.com/5xGP7idNFk — AND1 Basketball (@and1basketball) August 8, 2023

And what draws the young fans in? It’s what they see on the court. The stars of tomorrow cannot be duplicated. Tango said the next wave of players has to be ready to live up to what the originals brought to the game.

“Those guys were amazing,” Tango said. “As we come back, these guys better be super good, because that first AND1 team was just like the USA Dream Team with Magic Johnson: You will never see a team like that again.”

As for the brand itself, Gordon said AND1 wants to be around another 30 years but will accept growth on a year-by-year basis. AND1 hopes to continue its partnership with Walmart, as it is proud that it can sell quality apparel to families for affordable prices. Gordon is happy that AND1 found and maintained a niche by meshing basketball with hip-hop, particularly with this year’s being the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. In addition to making great mixtapes, AND1 was able to showcase a lot of new hip-hop artists in the 2000s.

Evolution is now the goal for AND1. It has built a cultural resume of success for three decades, and the goal is to continue giving its fans, past and present, what they want.

“It’s humbling just to have a brand,” Gordon said. “You’re celebrating 30 years and celebrating the fans who have been with you to have that longevity. You had your peaks and your lows, but it’s a blessing. We’re proud. A 30th-year anniversary … you sit back and just say, ‘Wow.’”

Schein added: “This is just the first 30. We’ve got a lot more work ahead of us.”

— The Athletic ’s Hunter Patterson contributed to this report.

(Top photo: Steve Grayson / WireImage via Getty Images)

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Jason Jones is a staff writer for The Athletic, covering Culture. Previously, he spent 16 years at the Sacramento Bee, covering the Sacramento Kings and Oakland Raiders. He's a proud Southern California native and a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley Follow Jason on Twitter @ mr_jasonjones

Mixtaped: How And1 Changed The Way We Watch And Think About Basketball

Before the turn of the millennium, something happened that would alter the basketball landscape for the entire decade to come. It would change the way fans think about the sport, the manner in which we consume it, and it would spawn whole cottage industries of hoops that few of us could have imagined or predicted. It was the arrival of the And1 Mixtape Volume 1 .

Think back for a moment to the first time you saw it. Or just watch the YouTube video below (more on that later). Remember how it felt? It was a rare glimpse into a world many fans had never seen before. This was raw playground basketball in its purest form. Part snuff film, part documentary, part music video, it was also the long-overdue union of hip hop and basketball. It was our introduction to a boyish Rafer Alston aka “Skip to My Lou” and to the now-deceased Tyrone “Alimoe” Evans aka “The Black Widow.”

For 18 glorious minutes, it was a whirlwind tour of New York City playgrounds and the unforgettable characters who inhabited them, set to a blistering soundtrack featuring Common , the GZA , Mos Def , and other hip hop heavyweights.

It ushered in a cultural phenomenon that would persist throughout the better part of the coming decade and influence a whole new generation of basketball players, and it all started essentially as a viral marketing campaign on the part of the And1 shoe and apparel company. Building on the concept and popularity of early ’90s skateboard thrasher videos that featured grainy homemade footage set to rock and heavy metal music, And1 and took “the Skip tape,” as it was known then, edited it, added a hip hop soundtrack, made a limited run of 10,000 copies, and then made a deal with FootAction to distribute the tape as a gift-with-purchase item at stores around the country. DJ Set Free spoke about the inception of the tape in Complex’s fantastic oral history of the And1 Mixtape Tour :

“There was all this old playground footage of Rafer [Alston] at the Rucker. Back then I was DJing, and I would play the tapes and turn the sound down and start DJing. That’s when it clicked, and I was like, ‘It would be incredible if we could package it and it would be the first ever video mixtape.”

In the mid-to-late ‘90s, it was still considered something of a faux pas when Allen Iverson would do playground moves in the NBA, but by the early 2000s, it had become the norm thanks to an influx of other streetball provocateurs like Jason Williams , Steve Francis , et al. Today, Chris Paul , Jamal Crawford , Tyreke Evans , Brandon Jennings , and Kyrie Irving all owe a tremendous debt to the streetball craze. Every time someone breaks out the Shamgod or throws an alley-oop off the backboard, it’s a callback to And1 in its heyday.

And that’s because at one point in time, believe it or not, And1 and the NBA were in real competition for the attention of basketball fans around the world. And1 had successfully marketed itself as featuring “the best ballers not in the NBA,” and as a testament to the genius of their marketing campaign, helped create the perception that NBA players had to earn their street cred (as if being in the NBA wasn’t credibility enough) by going to Rucker Park in Harlem and playing against streetball legends. And sure enough, scores of NBA stars did precisely that. Kobe Bryant , Allen Iverson, Steve Francis, Vince Carter , and countless others all participated in either And1 or Rucker Park events at one point or another.

What’s more telling is how many NBA players chose not to participate in streetball events, as it was a very real possibility that some unknown hotshot might try to make a name for himself at their expense, which is exactly what happened when Jamaal Tinsley went against Larry Williams aka “Bone Collector.” Iverson also famously refused to guard Bone Collector during another Rucker Park game.

Click here to read more about the critical backlash to And1…

Like the skateboard mixtapes that preceded them, the basketball mixtape became something of an instructional video for fans and wannabe streetball players. For better or for worse, people at gyms and playgrounds around the world were mimicking the different moves they saw in the videos, whether it was throwing the ball through their defender’s legs and/or bouncing it off their opponent’s foreheads. How many fights were instigated because of this is anybody’s guess, and it was just this sort of “anything goes” ethos that was at the center of the inevitable backlash to come.

The complaints were common and, in many cases, perfectly warranted. They don’t play defense. They glamorize style over substance. They have no work ethic. They have a blatant disregard for certain rules of etiquette or decorum. They simply don’t have the talent to play at the next level. This last complaint was a particularly sore spot for just about everybody involved, except for Rafer Alston, the lone And1 star who actually made it to the NBA. However, it bears mentioning that many of the And1 stars did, in fact, play organized basketball at the Division 1 collegiate level and/or professionally or semi-professionally at home and abroad. Nonetheless, all this combined to create the perception that And1 players simply couldn’t hack it in organized basketball.

To fully understand the rise and fall of And1 basketball, it has to be viewed through a particular cultural lens. Streetball and hip hop will forever be intertwined since both essentially represent a counter-culture movement, but And1 also incidentally underscored the tragic truth about the quest for NBA stardom: For every guy who’s ever made it to the league, there are twenty other similar guys who, for whatever reason (and the reasons are many-faceted), never realized his potential. And1 inadvertently became symbolic of the struggle and the disappointment and the regret associated with missed opportunities and dwindling dreams of basketball immortality. But it also served as a reminder that there was opportunity outside the NBA for talented players with a particular skill-set and a certain flair for entertainment.

Nobody embodied the spirit of the streetball movement quite like Phillip Champion aka “Hot Sauce,” who was simultaneously the most popular figure of the And1 universe and the most divisive. Although Skip 2 My Lou is considered the pioneer or progenitor of modern streetball, it was Hot Sauce who brought the game to global popularity during the early aughts, and just as he was becoming the face of And1, he also became the lightning rod for criticism.

While Hot Sauce’s cult-like followers stubbornly believe that he has some of the sickest handles of anyone in the world, his detractors point out that many of his signature moves amount to palming or traveling violations that wouldn’t be permitted in any legitimate basketball game. Furthermore, whether his mesmerizing dribbling displays fit within the normal ebb and flow of the game or resulted in a made basket was almost always beside the point. He was also responsible for a legion of clones and imitators who provided a great deal of unintentional comedy but were the most insufferable people to play pickup basketball with.

“When we picked up Hot Sauce, we were trying to teach him basketball. And teach him how to play confined within the rules,” Waliyy “Main Event” Dixon told Complex . “I tell people, ‘Hot Sauce good, he’s cool.’ I tell them, ‘He’s one of the best illegal ball handlers I’ve seen in my lifetime.’ Instead of him learning, I think Sauce single-handedly messed up what streetball is. The culture of streetball. Sauce is more of a Globetrotter, could’ve had a great career with the Globetrotters or the Harlem Wizards or the Generals or whatever. They didn’t really understand what I was saying. I’m not hating on him, but this is what streetball is.”

*** *** ***

Even after the streetball craze had cooled, the legacy it left behind was a can’t-miss formula, and hip hop beats are an essential part of that formula. Two of entities who have become synonymous with basketball mixtapes are Anno Domini Beats and Flawless Tracks . Although Anno Domini Beats itself has grown into a collective of hip hop producers, the producer who gives the group its namesake “Anno Domini” aka Adrian Boeckeler, is a German DJ who started making beats on his laptop back in 2004 and has worked with artists such as the Wu-Tang Clan , Kool G Rap , and many others. Anno Domini and Flawless Tracks have both opened the doors for countless producers to make and sell beats specifically for the purposes of basketball mixtapes.

“Basketball is a game of rhythm, and for that, this sport and music are synonymous.” – a spokesperson for The Mars Reel said.

In hindsight, a 2001 HoopsTV.com production called Ball Above All may have more accurately anticipated the direction mixtapes were headed in the future than And1 did. Ball Above All was a 40-minute mix that wasn’t limited to streetball. Rather, it featured highlights from high school prep players, college, summer leagues, as well as NBA players, but with a similar hip hop soundtrack permeating easily digestible 3-5 minute segments.

Squint hard enough at the grainy footage below and you can see a young Luke Ridnour abusing defenders in high school. It was also our first introduction to high-flying phenom James “Flight” White . For some of us, it was the first time we saw an NBA star matched up against lower-level talent: watching Steve Francis drop 63 points in a summer league game while barely breaking a sweat truly solidified the difference between NBA-level talent and the average ball player.

Click here to find out how YouTube changed the game…

Hard as it is to imagine a world without YouTube , we all lived in that world up until 2005, when three former PayPal employees dreamed up the idea of a free video-sharing website featuring user-generated content. Instantly, collectively, and at a truly astonishing pace, basketball fans around the globe dusted off their old VHS tapes, broke out the user-friendly editing software that came standard on their iMacs , and started producing and uploading highlight mixes of their favorite players.

And we’re not just talking about superstar players and household names. The most obscure, marginalized, and otherwise forgotten player imaginable has their fifteen seconds of fame thanks to YouTube.

More than just a welcome distraction from our workaday malaise, YouTube has also become something of time capsule. For Gen-Xers and Millennials, our cultural memory only stretches back so far. We might hazily recall watching Magic and Bird go at it in the latter part of their primes, but that’s about as far back as we can remember. The 50s, 60s, and 70s were the dark ages of hoops, even for those who were around back then. It was a period when most games weren’t televised, and even many of the ones that were televised were often shown in tape delay.

An entire generation of hoops fans raised on Magic, Bird, Jordan , Kobe, and LeBron never had a chance to see Bill Russell , Wilt Chamberlain , Elgin Baylor , Jerry West , or Oscar Robertson in their primes, and as a result, kids today groan and roll their eyes when cranky old coots try to defend their honor and preserve their place in the pantheon of all-time greats. They scoff at the notion that old-timey players with their short shorts, their gangly frames, their unwieldy body hair, and their canvas tennis shoes could hold their own against the genetically-superior athletic specimens of today.

But thanks to YouTube, we can go straight to video evidence when we want to claim, for instance, that Bill Russell, at almost 7-feet-tall, had the speed, the handle, and the hops that made him a prototype to modern-day stars like Kevin Durant or that Celtics legend Bob Cousy aka “The Houdini of the Hardwood” was the original Hot Sauce.

In its infancy, YouTube users such as “Yinka Dare” (an obscure reference to the deceased Nigerian basketball player of the same name) and “Expired Pineapples” were some of the pioneers of the homemade YouTube basketball mix. Employing the same formula as the And1 Mixtapes, they produced highlight-reel mixes set to hip hop soundtracks for numerous NBA stars, past and present.

Eventually, websites like Hoopmixtape.com , Ballislife.com , and TheMarsReel.com came long and were the architects of modern business models designed solely for the purpose of filming, editing, producing, and distributing high-quality basketball mixtapes to the public for free via the internet. They follow and document basketball with a kind of religious fervor, crisscrossing the country filming high school prep games, summer leagues, the AAU circuit, and more. They are largely responsible for why fledgling stars enjoy so much national exposure from such a young age.

They are also partly to blame for the overexposure of many young athletes who, just a few years short ago, would not have enjoyed such an insane amount of national attention.

A young phenom like Aquille Carr aka “The Crime Stopper” , for example, is absurdly entertaining to watch because, despite his small stature (5-6 stretched to the gills), the Baltimore native dominated the competition at the high school level. But without YouTube and the aforementioned mixtape websites, he would have remained a relative obscurity outside of his hometown.

Click here to read about the phenomenon of professional dunking…

Today, it’s a common perception among hardcore hoops fanatics that the best dunkers in the world are, in fact, not in the NBA. Once again, this can all be traced back to And1. The mixtapes were our introduction to guys like Waliyy “The Main Event” Dixon, John “Helicopter” Humphrey , and Taurian “The Air Up There” Fontenette , the latter of whom is inarguably one of the best dunkers of all time despite having never played a single, solitary moment of NBA basketball. It was during those early And1 Mixtapes that we first saw The Main Event, previously unknown to the greater viewing public, pulling off impossible dunks, like murdering a half-court bounce-pass alley-oop, or jumping over a teammate during a game , or catching a ridiculous 360-reverse dunk off a mid-court lob.

It sparked a new era of creativity and innovation, and it inspired a whole new generation of dunkers who now routinely – almost effortlessly – execute the types of dunks previously only seen in video games. While the And1 juggernaut had figured out how to monetize and capitalize off the streetball craze, it didn’t take long for amateur dunkers around the world to figure out that they could leverage the Internet for their own personal branding. What it spawned was a whole new cottage industry of professional dunking.

Back in 2006, a website called Team Flight Brothers started making videos of amateur dunkers and posting them on YouTube. According to their YouTube page , they’ve had more than 78 million views since, and they’ve participated in more than 200 international events including half-time shows, charity events, corporate-sponsored promotions, and streetball exhibitions. They introduced the world to high fliers like T-Dub , Kenny Dobbs , James White , and countless others.

They’ve also spoiled and jaded us. Critics like to argue that the problem with the NBA Dunk Contest is that it doesn’t have enough star power. If only superstars like LeBron James et al would compete each year, it would regain some of its former glory. But the problem isn’t the lack of star power. The problem, aside from all the ridiculous gimmicks, is oversaturation. New dunk videos are uploaded to YouTube, Ballislife, The Mars Reel, Hoopmixtape, and countless other sites on a daily basis, each one more impressive than the last, and as a result rabid hoops fans have likely already seen every variation on even the most mindboggling dunks of the past few years.

So when the NBA Dunk Contest finally rolls around as it does once a year, it’s inevitably disappointing. A few years ago, when the internet dunking phenomenon was reaching its peak, the NBA took notice (or rather couldn’t ignore it any longer) and actually enlisted the help of high-flying TFB alums “Werm” and “Jus Fly” to give tips to DeMar Derozan and other participants in a shameless effort to make the 2011 NBA Dunk Contest watchable again. For the past several years now, the Sprite Slam Dunk Showdown has been touring the country each summer hosting local competitions and featuring some of the best dunkers in the world competing for cash prizes, and most of the time, it’s is far more entertaining than the NBA Dunk Contest at All-Star Weekend .

Click here to find out what the future holds…

The Internet is a powerful force against myths and legends, and YouTube is just another facet of the Orwellian dystopia that the 21st century has in store for us. Gone are the days when folks would tell tall tales about that time they saw someone make change off the top of the backboard or that one kid who was barely five-feet tall who could dunk like he was Vince Carter. Now, we just go straight to the video evidence to prove or debunk these outlandish claims.

Pee Wee Kirkland , a legend in the truest sense of the word, lives to spin yarns like the one about the time Joe Hammond scored 74 points (40-50 in one half) at the Rucker. Sadly, no video evidence of this exist, but when Kevin Durant dropped 66 points on the same hallowed court during the lockout a couple of years ago, the video had practically gone viral before the game was even over.

Unless you’re of certain financial means and thus a season ticket-holder of court-side seats, basketball is best viewed through the filter of television. Those of us relegated to 300-level seats know that the vertiginous birds-eye view from the nosebleed section is just about the worst possible vantage point from which to enjoy a basketball game.

Before NBA League Pass , before NBA.com , before highlights and recaps became omnipresent online, you had to either watch a televised game in its entirety or catch Sportscenter to get your daily basketball fix. Today, we can visit any number of websites at our own leisure to catch up on highlights from the night before.

The problem with recaps and mixtapes is that they are, by nature, disingenuous. The slog of a 48-minute game has been compressed to a more digestible 2-3 minute highlight recap. All the missed shots, all the turnovers, all the general lulls in the action, i.e. all the boring and unexciting parts, have been edited out.

“[Mix-making] is a form of artistic ability. To be able to recap the best moments of an event into 30 seconds, 45 seconds, one, two, or three minutes with multiple camera angles and music is a skill,” a spokesperson for The Mars Reel said. “What music choice are you using, what players are you going to place at a specific time frame in a video, what kind of clips are in the video, what player’s playing style fits what song? And most importantly what camera angles. It’s a feel.”

Without a doubt, highlight mixes make the experience seem much more exciting, and they make every player look like a superstar. It’s partially why they’re not terribly useful as a recruiting tool. When evaluating prospects, coaches want to see all the nuances and idiosyncrasies of a player’s game. They want to know if they’re prone to poor positioning on the defensive end, how they move without the ball, what their body language is like, whether they have a penchant for ill-advised shots, and whether they demonstrate good decision-making skills in a variety of circumstances that are categorically less exciting than dunks, blocks, buzzer beaters, crossovers, and jump shots. But, of course, mixes are designed primarily for entertainment purposes.

“Highlight videos definitely change how we consume hoops everyday,” The Mars Reel spokesperson said. “and companies like us among others stir up different emotions just like your favorite song would. It can be motivating, energizing, and exciting. Even if you’re just a basketball fan (not a player), it can be something really cool to watch.”

Mixtapes are all those things and more, but it’s somewhat disconcerting to think that, thanks to the Information Age, our attention spans have shriveled to the point that it’s, in many cases, preferable to catch a recap than it is to actually sit down and watch a basketball game.

What do you think?

Follow Jamie on Twitter at @WinoCarpenter .

Follow Dime on Twitter at @DimeMag .

Become a fan of Dime Magazine on Facebook HERE .

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Wayback wednesday: and 1 streetball retrospective.

Posted by: Andrew in AND 1 Streetball , Features , Wayback Wednesday November 3, 2021 0

This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! In this feature, we dig into the archives, look back at the history of basketball gaming, and indulge in some nostalgia. Check in every Wednesday for retrospectives and other features on older versions of NBA Live, NBA 2K, and old school basketball video games in general. You’ll also find old NLSC editorials re-published with added commentary, and other flashback content. This week, I’m taking a look back at AND 1 Streetball.

As much as I enjoy revisiting old favourites that I’ve spent hundreds of hours with over the years, I also enjoy going back and checking out basketball games that I missed the first time around. It’s given me reason to seek out deals on eBay and expand my collection, and these days, I’ve got a variety of hoops titles at my disposal. Good, bad, or mediocre, they’re always interesting to check out. In fact, there’s often a lot of fun to be had with the titles that are slightly rough around the edges, especially when they can bring something different to the table.

Case in point: AND 1 Streetball. Developed by Black Ops Entertainment and released for PlayStation 2 and Xbox, it didn’t have the polish of an NBA Live or NBA 2K, or for that matter, NBA Street. It was a competent effort though, and a fun game in its own right. The use of AND1 talent also made it stand out from NBA Street, as did its approach to gameplay. It’s another basketball game that’s somewhat forgotten, which is unfortunate as it deserves to be remembered. Let’s take a look back…way back…

During the early to mid 2000s, the AND1 Mixtape Tour was very popular. The tour was televised on ESPN 2, and highlights were compiled into the titular mixtapes, ten of which were produced between 1998 and 2008. Hosted by Emcee Rell, the tour included well-known streetballers The Professor, Baby Shack, Hotsauce, The Bone Collector, and former NBA player and street legend Rafer Alston, aka Skip to My Lou. EA Sports’ foray into the blacktop with the NBA Street series demonstrated the appeal of the concept, and that there was a market for titles such as AND 1 Streetball. Of course, it wasn’t the first streetball title that Black Ops Entertainment had made.

In 2002, Black Ops released Street Hoops, a similar style of game featuring players from the AND1 Mixtape Tour, and other streetballers. Released in 2006, AND 1 Streetball could be considered a spiritual successor rather than an official sequel, with a mobile version titled AND 1 Street Basketball also being released earlier in the year. Contrary to its predecessor, AND 1 Streetball was fully licensed and included the entire roster from the 2005 Mixtape Tour, though some ballers had to be unlocked. Clothing, courts, moves, and other content were also earned by playing the game, or unlocked through cheat codes; a quaint concept in the age of microtransactions!

Speaking of unlockable players, professional wrestling fans may recognise the name Mark Jindrak, as he wrestled for WCW, WWF/WWE, and more recently, CMLL. As he played college basketball before becoming a pro wrestler, a fellow fan and I ended up speculating in a Twitter thread if it was indeed the same Mark Jindrak. As it turns out, yes it was! Mark himself jumped into the thread to confirm it, and provided a bit of back story. Around the time he was released from WWE in July 2005, the AND1 Mixtape Tour came through Atlanta. He tried out, playing one game and winning a dunk contest. For the record, he notably has the highest vertical leap in WWE history.

Jindrak’s stint with AND1 was short-lived. As he himself explained, he didn’t join the tour as there was another player there who could perform a 720 dunk, but he made a good impression and ended up being included as an unlockable character in AND 1 Streetball. He had of course previously appeared in WWE Smackdown vs RAW and WWE Smackdown vs RAW 2006, so much like Brock Lesnar’s appearance in the rosters of Madden 06 , Mark’s a pro wrestler that ended up being playable in a non-wrestling video game following his stint in WWE. Shout out to Mark for being cool enough to drop in with that info, and for throwing down this textbook 360 jam !

Alright, let’s dive into AND 1 Streetball. The game featured a beautifully animated intro that immediately sets the tone. Seeing an intro like that reminds me of their importance to basketball video games, even when we end up skipping them. The menus featured highlight clips in the background, not unlike the reels seen in the PlayStation 2 and PC versions of NBA Live from around the same time. You could actually choose to watch the intro at any time in the “Bonus Stuff” menu, suggesting that the developers were rightfully proud of it. As with NBA Jam and NBA Street titles, the aesthetic really made AND 1 Streetball stand out from NBA Live and 2K.

The controls were familiar and intuitive. In fact, the button configuration for shooting, passing, blocking, rebounding, and stealing was identical to NBA Street. However, while NBA Street utilised a face button for performing trick moves, the same button performed taunts on offense in AND 1 Streetball. The Taunt button was also used in conjunction with L1 to back down defenders, and on defense, to push back against an opponent backing down in the post. Advanced controls included the ability to throw alley-oops to teammates or lob to yourself, as well as attempt tip dunks. The sprint control was also used to enhance the various dribbling moves at the cost of energy.

Dribbling and trick moves were handled by a system called I-Ball, which utilised the analog sticks and turbo. There were two levels of I-Ball moves while in motion, and three levels while stationary. Level 1 was set-up dribbles, performed with the right analog stick. Level 2 brought out the showboat moves, executed by holding both analog sticks in a certain direction. Level 3 moves were the ankle-breakers, and could be pulled off by holding both sticks in a direction in conjunction with turbo. The only way to make a defender fall with a Level 3 move was to fill the Ankle-Breaker meter with crafty combos. A siren indicated the precise moment to make your move.

Additionally, the player indicator provided clues as to when to smoothly transition into the next dribbling move, effectively chaining them together. Being too quick or too slow with your timing interrupted the flow, ultimately forcing you to start over with your combo. I-Ball controls could seem complicated at first, but were fairly straightforward. They weren’t as smooth and precise as Freestyle in NBA Live, or the Pro Stick in more recent NBA 2K games, but they did the job. Player movement was noticeably exaggerated compared to other games including arcade titles such as NBA Street, which could lead to out-of-control moments and overpowered combinations.

Defensive controls weren’t as deep, though the right stick was a second steal control alongside the button. Holding turbo while attempting a block snatched it out of the air rather than just swatting it, though this drained energy from the sprint meter. Holding the right stick down was also a method of countering tricks from the “Off Da Head” branch of I-Ball moves. If an opponent tried to throw the ball off your head as they were setting you up for an ankle-breaker, good timing on the right stick would grab it for the steal. When defenders failed to counter the “Off Da Head” moves, there was a chance that they’d be temporarily stunned, and thus much easier to leave in the dust.

Successfully performing I-Ball moves and finishing with a bucket filled the Crowd Meter. A full meter earned a “Mic Checka” Mic, at which point you were able to activate On Fire mode, or perform a Breakdown move. Not unlike NBA Jam, On Fire mode – activated by pressing both L1 and L2 – boosted your team’s abilities, complete with a glowing ball. Breakdown moves – performed by pressing R1 and R2 – could only be performed in specific areas of the floor, revealed by the indicator pulsing. Like NBA Street’s Gamebreakers, Breakdown moves were scripted sequences that ended with baskets worth more points (3 in halfcourt games, 5 in full court games).

Once again, while some of the control concepts in AND 1 Streetball sound complex, they weren’t difficult on the sticks. With that being said, what was the gameplay like in action? I’d sum it up as very fun, but undoubtedly clunky. As noted above, player movement tended to be exaggerated on dribbling moves, and gameplay was definitely tuned for offensive domination rather than defensive battles. The animations were also quite dated for a game that came out in 2006. Although there were some moves and shots that looked slick, others looked very awkward, with inconsistent speed. The speed and trajectory of the ball on jumpshots were too fast and too low respectively.

Although Breakdown moves triggered cinematic sequences in which players went into a dribbling combination followed by a shot attempt, the defense was actually still in control. However, the camera angle made it extremely tough to stay with your man. It was impossible to pump fake when facing away from the basket, as players would immediately attempt a turnaround fadeaway. Pace was slowed during inbounds as players collected loose balls and the camera rotated and shifted to a low baseline angle, which also interfered with the movement of defenders. The AI was prone to major lapses, stifling fast breaks and not taking advantage of clear opportunities.

In short, the tech was dated even for 2006, and the gameplay doesn’t feel as polished as other games of that vintage, or even a few years earlier for that matter. There were also some animation glitches, as I’ve experienced players successfully dunking on an invisible hoop way off to the side. However, this doesn’t mean that AND 1 Streetball wouldn’t have been fun to play when it came out, as I had a great time messing around with it some fifteen years later! It’s immensely satisfying to throw lobs to yourself and break ankles. As clunky as some animations were, when something did look good, it looked very good. The presentation and commentary made highlights feel special.

Much of the awkwardness can probably be chalked up to the animations being quite reminiscent of an older sim title, but combined with arcade-like gameplay mechanics. Such awkward animations also aren’t uncommon in titles from studios not usually known for hoops games. There was a level of competence, but not the same polish or animation quality as an EA or 2K title. The AI lapses and catch-up logic resulted in contrived balance, but it worked well with the casual pick-up-and-play style. AND 1 Streetball straddled the line between exaggerated sim and arcade gameplay, and for all of the clunky moments, the on-court experience can be really fun and engaging.

With that in mind, it’s a great example of how we can easily fall victim to the false dichotomy of great or awful, ignoring all the ground in between. No, the dribbling moves aren’t as smooth as NBA Street, but it’s very satisfying when the game goes into slow motion as you break someone’s ankles. When you complete an alley-oop off the glass, you want to watch the instant replay, even when the animations aren’t as impressive on second glance. Movement can look stiff but feels fluid on the sticks, while the controls have enough complexity for a suitable learning curve without being intimidating or off-putting. I understand its appeal in 2006, and it can still be enjoyed.

The creation and customisation options in AND 1 Streetball weren’t extraordinarily deep, but nevertheless sufficient. Create-a-Baller included different body types and face sculpting options, and it was even possible to place your own face on a created player using the PS2’s EyeToy camera. New gear could be unlocked and purchased with in-game cash, which also paid for attribute upgrades. Again, since this was long before microtransactions, the base attributes and array of basic gear that was already unlocked were quite generous. There were also basic player archetypes, while your created player’s height and weight likewise impacted their fifteen base attributes.

Creating your own Breakdown move is arguably the signature feature of AND 1 Streetball. This involved piecing together two “showboat” moves followed by a finish, and culminating with a celebration animation. A number of animations were unlocked by default, with the rest being unlockable in the game’s campaign mode; more on that in a moment. Other customisation options included difficulty, camera angle, and the default game rules. Rules could also be changed before quick games, as well as the location, game type (full court, halfcourt, 1-on-1 to 5-on-5, duration, etc), and even the time of day. It was enough to keep exhibition play fresh and interesting.

As for the game’s campaign mode, it was – not surprisingly – based on the AND1 Mixtape Tour, featuring streetball tournaments around the country. Your goal was to earn an AND1 contract with your created baller, and become a streetball legend. The Tour began with the Open Runs, which were short 5v5 tryout games with local teams. The top three players moved on to the Main Runs, where they teamed with players from previous stops on the tour to take on Team AND1. Over the course of the tour, the three hopefuls are voted in or out based on their performance, until only one is left with an opportunity to earn a contract. Story cutscenes added flavour to the campaign.

In addition to the Open Runs and Main Runs, each city on the tour had Side Games with their own rules. These custom games earned additional rewards, and would be unlocked for exhibition play when they were beaten during the Tour. Other players would send your baller text messages, which you had to read in order not to lose face. Your baller could also be modified with new gear, attribute upgrades, and Breakdown moves along the way. Most of the replay value was in the form of trying out different player builds for the Tour, unlocking content, or creating a new Breakdown move. Online play was also supported, though I’m not sure how active that scene ever was.

This gave AND 1 Streetball respectable depth to go along with gameplay that could be a blast if you didn’t mind dated animations and some clunky moments. Needless to say, its appeal banked heavily on the popularity of the AND1 Mixtape Tour, and the streetball stars of the era. While this made it rather unique, it also resulted in a title that was unquestionably niche. To that end, it definitely had less mainstream appeal than an NBA-licensed title such as NBA Street, or Acclaim’s NBA Jam title from 2003. Combined with the rough and dated aspects of the gameplay, this led to critics posting mixed reviews for PlayStation 2 , while Xbox reviews skewed negatively.

Conversely, gamer opinions tend to be markedly more positive, to the point where the user remarks on Metacritic are bewildered and sniping at the critics’ reviews. While I would suggest that they are overlooking some key issues and valid criticism, it speaks to how the game was capable of being a lot of fun despite its flaws. Indeed, it seems that gamers who played it back in the day hold it in high regard and are nostalgic for it. Despite the shortcomings I’ve noted, I understand where they’re coming from. Sure, it looks and feels even more dated now, but the gameplay can still be very satisfying. If it’s an old favourite, you’ll likely find it to be just as playable over a decade later.

We all have a different level of tolerance when it comes to outdated tech, especially when it wasn’t even cutting edge when it was new. Still, if you’re a keen retro gamer, I don’t think you need to necessarily be nostalgic for AND 1 Streetball to enjoy playing it today. If you’re after a game that was ahead of its time, then it probably won’t be for you. If you can look past the clunky animations and spotty AI to ball out using flashy AND1 moves with the stars of the Mixtape Tour, you’ll find it very entertaining, as I did. It’s also interesting to see the story in the campaign mode given that the approach has become such an intrinsic part of NBA 2K’s MyCAREER over the past generation.

I’ll stand by my assertion that there was some roughness to AND 1 Streetball, and a few aspects that were already dated by 2006. It didn’t have the same polish as NBA Street or the contemporary NBA Live and NBA 2K titles, but it had solid mechanics that worked well enough. The AND1 license made it unique, and its gameplay was a good mix of exaggerated sim and low-key arcade; not over-the-top cartoony, but too fast-paced and flashy to be completely sim. AND 1 Streetball wasn’t on NBA Street’s level, but it’s better than the sum of its parts. A commendable effort, it doesn’t take a Professor to understand the appeal and nostalgia for this enjoyable streetball game.

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Home » Guide » AND1: The Rise of Streetball and the Players Who Helped Make It Legendary

AND1: The Rise of Streetball and the Players Who Helped Make It Legendary

Introduction.

AND1 is a streetball brand that has become increasingly popular in the past two decades. It has become a cultural phenomenon, as its players have become household names and its tournaments have become annual events. AND1 has become an icon in the world of basketball, and its players have helped to make it what it is today. This article will explore the history of AND1, the players who have made it famous, and how they helped to shape the culture of streetball.

History of AND1

AND1 was founded in 1993 by two basketball players, Seth Berger and Jay Coen Gilbert. The brand was created to promote streetball and the players who played it. The company’s first product was a basketball shoe, designed to give players the traction, cushioning, and ankle support needed for streetball. Since then, AND1 has released a wide range of apparel, including t-shirts, shorts, and jerseys. AND1 became known for its association with streetball, and its players quickly rose to fame. These players not only showcased their skills on the court, they also created their own unique style of play. This style was characterized by flashy dunks, no-look passes, and creative dribbling moves.

Notable AND1 Players

Throughout the years, many players have been associated with the AND1 brand. Here are some of the most notable players:

The Professor

Grayson Boucher, better known as “The Professor,” is one of the most famous AND1 players. He rose to fame after appearing in the first season of the AND1 Mixtape Tour in 2002. He is known for his creative dribbling moves and flashy passes. He has also released several instructional DVDs and a book on streetball.

Skip to My Lou

Rafer Alston, also known as “Skip to My Lou,” is another iconic AND1 player. He was the first player to be featured on the AND1 Mixtape Tour, and he is considered one of the pioneers of streetball. He is known for his flashy ball-handling and passing ability.

Aaron Owens, also known as “AO,” is an AND1 player who rose to fame after appearing on the AND1 Mixtape Tour. He is known for his impressive dunking ability and his ability to make difficult shots. He has also released several instructional DVDs.

Phillip Champion, better known as “Hot Sauce,” is an AND1 player who gained popularity after appearing on the AND1 Mixtape Tour. He is known for his impressive ball-handling and passing ability. He has also released several instructional DVDs.

The Impact of AND1

AND1 has had a major impact on the world of basketball and streetball. The AND1 Mixtape Tour, which featured the most talented players in the world, showcased the style and skill of streetball to a global audience. This helped to popularize the game and make it more accessible to players of all levels. The brand has also helped to create a new generation of basketball players who are inspired by streetball. Many of these players have been able to use their skills to get college scholarships and even NBA contracts.

AND1 is a streetball brand that has become an icon in the world of basketball. Its players have become household names and have helped to popularize the game of streetball. From The Professor to Hot Sauce, these players have helped shape the culture of streetball and have made AND1 what it is today.

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AND1 basketball: Where are The Professor, Hot Sauce, Skip 2 My Lou now?

Zaakirah Mujid - BVM Sports Digital Specialist/Journalist

Updated: August 23, 2022

NEW YORK (BVM) – Netflix’s “Untold: The Rise and Fall of AND1” documentary (aired August 23) features interviews with arguably the greatest AND1 mixtape tour players in association: The Professor, Hot Sauce and Skip 2 My Lou. 

“A lot of people today say, ‘What happened to AND1?’ … I don’t know what happened to it and I was a part of it,” Duke Tango – a.k.a Thomas Mills, former AND1 announcer who often gave the streetballers their nicknames – said in his “Untold” interview

With the release of the new AND1 basketball documentary, here’s information on what some of the featured players have been up to lately. 

Where is The Professor now? 

The Professor, whose real name is Grayson Boucher, never made it into the NBA. He broke down the three main reasons why he never made it in a video on his YouTube page from 2020. 

“I never had the resume for the NBA… the politics of the game were never on my side… I wouldn’t accept an NBA contract because I like what I do (making streetball videos).” 

Today, Boucher is 38 years old and is still pulling off moves like he’s 18. You don’t need to rewind AND1 VHS mixtapes to see his moves considering you can study them from his personal YouTube channel . He’s a viral sensation with nearly seven million subscribers on YouTube alone. He helps produce highly entertaining basketball videos and one of which most recently includes him playing in a Bugs Bunny costume. 

Celebrity Net Worth estimates Grayson Boucher’s net worth to be $500,000. Alongside social media, Boucher is also the CEO of GlobalHooper, which is a basketball streetwear brand. He’s not making anything similar to the famous AND1 shoes; he mainly sells tops and bottoms. 

Boucher acts too and was most recently in the basketball movie “Hustle” starring Adam Sandler. He made a small cameo and showed off some of his famous drills and choreography. 

Where is Hot Sauce now?

“At that time [when I joined AND1], I might’ve been the most popular basketball player on Earth,” Hot Sauce said during his “Untold” interview.  

Hot Sauce, whose real name is Philip Champion, is arguably still the most recognizable AND1 figure today. The flair that he added to the game had fans rushing to their TVs to practice his moves.

Today, the 46-year-old is raising the next generation of streetballers in both his personal and professional life. He hosts and appears as the special guest for basketball tournaments around the country. There are also “tutorials” coming soon to his website. 

One of his sons, Orion Champion, a 2024 6-foot-1 guard, notably led Solid Rock Academy in the GISA (Georgia Independent School Association) state championship with 22 points and eight assists as a sophomore last season .

Celebrity Net Worth estimates Philip Champion’s net worth to be $300,000. However, it’s not too late for him to start his own hot sauce brand to really rake in the cash.

Where is Skip 2 My Lou now?

Although he’s known in streetball as Skip 2 My Lou, he’s known in the pros as Rafer Alston. He made the transition out of streetball in 1999 and went on to make over $28 million in salary until his final season in 2010. Alston was able to make the big dollars in comparison to his former streetball teammates as he’s the only AND1 player to make it to the NBA. 

“One of my biggest regrets,” began AND1 co-founder Jay Coen Gilbert in the documentary, “had we thought of the mixtape players like employees as opposed to endorsed athletes, then we could have given them some stock options and that would have resulted in some incremental wealth going to all those players.”  

Players Bio estimates Rafer Alston’s net worth to be $24 million. The 46-year-old is officially retired from his professional playing career. Recently, he coached “Team Skip To My Lou” for TBT 2022. Glancing at his Instagram , it appears he’s coaching other youth teams to stay busy. 

Legacy left behind, as told in “The Rise and Fall of AND1″  

AND1 took expression in the game of basketball to a whole new level and many can confidently say there is a big impact in the NBA even today. 

“Some of the guys right now, today, we’re talking about superstars too, do some of the moves,” Hot Sauce said in his “Untold” interview as clips of NBA players like Steph Curry flashed across the screen. “They don’t have to give props if they don’t want to. We know who it came from.” 

From famous mixtapes to the launch of the AND1 Mixtape Tour – the legacy left behind is an impactful one for small-town youth and adults today. 

“We will always be, ‘Yo, that’s them dudes from AND1,” Shane “The Dribble Machine” Woney said during his “Untold” interview. 

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And 1 Streetball Review

And1 Streetball fails to effectively capture the spirit of real life streetball.

By Bob Colayco on June 9, 2006 at 5:20PM PDT

In the late 1990s, street basketball underwent a renaissance, fueled by an upstart shoe company looking to make a mark for itself in the highly competitive basketball shoe industry. That company, And1, succeeded in creating a grassroots phenomenon known as the And1 Mixtape Tour, an event that showcases the country's slickest streetballers with their acrobatic dunks and electrifying ball-handling moves. Today, the Mixtape Tour is nationally known, with a regular show on ESPN, and now its players are household names among most basketball fans. A video game based on the real-life streetballers is a logical extension, and while And1 Streetball does offer all the basic amenities and an interesting ball-handling design, sloppy execution makes this a game that most basketball fans can safely avoid.

On the surface, And1 Streetball seems like a perfectly fine game for avid fans of the Mixtape Tour. The game includes just about all the most prominent And1 ballers, their likenesses, and their signature moves, including original stars like Half Man, Half Amazing, and Main Event. Newer stars like Spyda, he of the amazing hops, and the slick-handling Pharmacist, are also prominently featured. Of course, it wouldn't be an And1 game without everyone's favorite, The Professor, whose unassuming looks belie his incredible quicks and a savant-like mastery of ball handling. To a lot of basketball fans, The Professor is the true "White Chocolate," not Jason Williams of the Miami Heat.

And1 Streetball's primary strength is actually in its unique ball-handling design, which is entirely appropriate for a genre of basketball that promotes its exciting brand of jukes and fakes. Instead of relying on buttons or combinations of button presses, And1 Streetball's "I-ball" system requires you to use the analog stick to execute your fakes. The game is sensitive to eight degrees of input from the sticks, and the jukes are separated into three tiers. Level-one fakes are setup dribbles, where the ball handler dribbles in place to try and lull the defender into complacency. Second-level fakes are more dramatic and abrupt, which then lead to the tier three finisher moves, which you can use to break your opponents' ankles. Not literally, of course--you just make them fall down--but the game shows this off dramatically as it goes into slow motion. The more jukes you work in, the more respect points you earn, which will fill up a meter that eventually earns you a "mic." You can consume these mics at any time to either unleash a canned, animated "breakdown" dunk worth three to five points, or to get your whole team on fire, which increases all of their general abilities.

Sounds good so far, but the execution of the I-ball is flawed in that you must chain together moves in a specific way for maximum effectiveness--the game attempts to show you visually how to time your transitions from setup dribble, to fake, to finisher. That's fine on paper, but in practice, the inputs from the controller are not usually responsive in the way you'd expect. At times it feels like mashing around on the sticks and hoping for the best can be almost as effective as trying to play in the way the designers intended. What's more, the act of breaking the defender's ankles is tied in to an ankle-breaking meter that fills whenever the on-ball defender is close. Since it requires proximity to make it work, the defender can simply back up off you to shut off your ankle-breaker meter. You can do the same to your opponents, as well.

So if the defender backs away, you should just pop the open jumper, right? That's not usually a great option, as most of the players in the game don't seem to be great outside shooters, and the massive rewards you get from building up a mic off of respect points are simply too great to ignore. The most efficient way to win a game is to build up as many mics as you can and then run off as many three- or five-point breakdowns as possible. This means the game boils down to a lot of one-on-one play where you mash on the I-ball controls to build up points before finishing off with a layup or dunk. The game design doesn't give much incentive to pass the ball, unless you want to see a cool alley-oop, but the animations on these are not that varied anyway, so once you've done it a few times you'll just want to score it yourself and not risk missing the pass. Defense in the game is also suspect--the collision detection isn't so great, so playing position defense is usually not rewarding. You get more mileage out of just slamming on the steal button, or, failing that, trying to block shots--in other words, high-risk, high-reward defense is better than playing in a solid but conservative style. Cynical observers might say that these characterizations of shooting, teamwork, and defense are accurate descriptors of street basketball, but no matter what you may think, it doesn't make for a very compelling video game.

The different game modes range from one-on-one up to three-on-three half-court basketball, or three-on-three to five-on-five full-court play. There's a story mode in the game that integrates all of these. You'll start as a prospect trying to get on the And1 bus at the start of its tour in New Jersey, then you'll make your way across the country and the world in various cities like ATL, the Illadelph, and Paris. In each city you'll play in the open run and the main run, where you'll try and play well enough to stay on the bus. You'll also play in some story-based side games against the And1 ballers, where you'll unlock new moves that you can use to create your own breakdown moves. You'll also earn money that you can use to buy new gear for your created baller or improve his skills. The problem with this mode is that it quickly gets repetitive. Winning isn't always good enough, either. And1 Streetball inexplicably copies one of NBA 06's story mode's worst features in that there's usually a side goal you need to accomplish along with winning, like getting a certain number of steals or ankle-breaker moves. It can be frustrating to win a game but be short in some insignificant stat and have to repeat it. While the cutscenes in the story mode might be amusing to hardcore fans of the And1 Mixtape, you won't find much value in the mode after you get through the first few cities.

Unfortunately, And1 Streetball's presentation isn't too hot, either. While certain animations look pretty decent and the models look OK for the most part, the game's animations just don't blend well together. Sometimes a body or the ball looks like it's moving too fast, and then a second later, too slow. This gives the game a very stilted look. The ball and players also tend to clip through one another, and even in the canned animations, you often don't see the ball move cleanly into the basket. Passing and shooting can look awkward at times depending on player position, and it can be disconcerting to see a close-up of a player talking without moving or having any expression on his face. It's as if you're balling with a bunch of trash-talking ventriloquists. Speaking of sound, And1 doesn't hold up well in that department, either; the game's hip-hop-inspired music is generally pretty bad, and the voice and commentary get repetitive very quickly. You can only hear Duke Tango say "Oh baby!" or "Let's watch this!" so many times before you'll have to repress an urge to chuck the ball right at his mouth. Online and offline multiplayer is available for both the PS2 and the Xbox versions of the game. But given a core basketball engine that feels primitive and has some basic design flaws, being able to play against your friends doesn't redeem the game or add much value, despite the fact that these features seem to work well.

While there are some decent ideas in And1 Streetball, it feels like the game wasn't refined nearly enough as it should have been. Everything, from the core gameplay to the presentation, seems very roughly executed, so it's difficult to recommend this game to anyone. You'll probably get more entertainment value out of the latest And1 Mixtape DVD than you will out of the And1 Streetball game.

• Leave Blank
• Features most of your favorite And1 players
• I-ball controls are unique
• Core gameplay feels dated
• Animation looks and feels stilted
• Gameplay design doesn't reward team play
• Defense feels like an afterthought
• Voice work gets repetitive

About the Author

Bob Colayco

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